#pidw headcanon

[lovefrombegonia]

tw // ghost, nightmare, haunting, gore

My PIDW headcanon: Luo Binghe is haunted by the "ghost" of Shen Jiu. Not...as in, there is really a ghost. Or you can think there is one. Either way is fine. But I like to think of it as Shen Jiu's memories still haunting him.

Sometimes, when LBH is alone in his chamber, he is unable to sleep, he can hear the subtle clinking of the chains. The sounds are there but at the same time, not. Sometimes, when he is enjoying wine, he can still smell the rotting stench of blood, waste and gore that he has learnt to associate with SQQ's prison.

One time, he had a horrible dream of being stuck in the woodshed again. He woke up, and walked around his study. He did it quietly, so that he won't wake up the wife he was bedding that night. In his study, he was pacing back and forth, when he thought he saw something at the corner of the door. He froze. Horrified. But that was just for a second. He could clearly see now. Nothing is there. But...he could have sworn, he saw a rotten figure peeking at him from the corner of the door, with chains and tattered clothes hanging, tangled with long, dirty hair. He could have sworn he saw the head peeking from the upper left corner. But it's not there now. Nothing is there.

Sometimes, when he is walking through his palace corridors alone, his royal robes dragging on the beautiful marble floor, he could hear the sound of the clothes dragging change just a bit, change into the dragging of a body dragging itself only by one hand. Every time he stops and turns around. Nothing is there. He is alone.

Sometimes, when he is making love, as he is lost in the throws of passion, he thinks that the lustful moans of his wives sound a bit too close to the painful grunts of his former shizun. He wants to stop right then and there. But he doesn't want to disappoint his wives. So, he keeps going.

He was alone in the large bath, the warm water and steam lulling him into sleep. It has been a long day. The royal court was brutal. The rebellions were suppressed but debates still felt unending. His eye lids were getting heavier. He felt so comfortable, so sleepy, he was already half-asleep, vision getting blurry. He was alone in the bath that could easily fit five. Eyes closing by themselves...blink...he is alone. Blink...it's a struggle to stay awake. Blink...he closes his eyes. He hears his voice. "Little beast." He is not alone. The water reeks. He opens his eyes. A mutilated corpse in the bath water, chained, limbless, staring at him. LBH startles awake so bad, he splashes water everywhere. He is gasping for air. He is alone in the bath and the water is warm. He is safe. He can still smell the rot though.

He decides to visit the prison again. He knows for sure that Shen Qingqiu is dead. He was dead the last time he saw him. He is dead now. So...he doesn't understand why he feels like when he opens the door, his shizun will be standing there, ready to insult him again. Why he felt like when he opens the door, he will be back in the woodshed. He opens the door. There he is, hanging uselessly in chains and dead, very much dead. LBH walks close to the corpse, just to be sure, checks for signs of life. The corpse is already being eaten by maggots. Skin rotten black and green. His shizun doesn't even look human, he is well on his way to become a skeleton. LBH thinks of feeding the corpse to sowers. After he performs an exorcism. Just in case. That's when he hears it from behind. The sound of a fan opening in one fluid motion. He turns around immediately! Hand on xin mo's hilt! But no one is there. LBH heart beat is racing, and he wants to just get out of there now. He must be losing his mind. Shizun is dead. He is DEAD. He is the emperor of all three realms now. He has nothing to fear from a stupid STUPID PATHETIC GHOST, EVEN IF HE IS REAL!! He calms himself down. He is gonna feed the corpse to beasts and burn this room. Seal it off, and never return. He will give the orders today--the sound of chains moving is now undeniable, he can hear it CLEARLY. Whatever is left behind, it's moving. LBH can feel its stare, picture it like all this is happening right in front of him. This time..the sounds don't go away. The cold dread doesn't go away. It is alive. It is grunting, croaking, almost trying to say something, raising its head. LBH... doesn't turn around. Doesn't look back. He runs. He dashes out of the room in almost maddening fear, and orders the first servant he comes across to seal the prison door. LBH walks as fast as he could without running to his private chamber, and finds Qiu Haitang there. He goes to her and embraces her. Trying to find some solace in her arms. QHT could smell the stench of death on her husband but she ignores it. He is clearly in distress, so, she tries to comfort him. Binghe has tears in his eyes, he hugs her tightly as she rubs his back. Suddenly, his pushes her away in shock. QHT is startled too. Her beloved is staring at her with fear in his eyes. She ignores the hurt she felt and coaxes him like he is a child, trying to ask what happened. He doesn't say that he heard the heavy chains clinking on her wrist when she was rubbing his back.

When he comes back from the other world with a "kind shizun", he walks straight towards shen qingqiu's prison, and smashes open the sealed door. Nothing is there. The room is completely clean, no track of blood or torture. LBH almost thinks that he went to the wrong prison. Sha Hualing followed him after she heard the commotion. SHL asks, her voice laced with hesitation and worries, "What is it, my love?"

LBH: "Where...where is he? Did I enter the wrong room?"

He sounds...genuinely confused which further scares SHL. "Binghe...?", she holds his face gently and says,"My lord, you ordered to feed the remains to the beasts and scrub this room clean as if nothing has ever happened here last month... remember?" LBH... doesn't answer for a while. Just stared at SHL with a dumbfounded expression. Then, "oh...yes. Yes, I-It must have escaped my mind." He smiles at her but it doesn't reach his eyes.

That night he swears that he sees his shizun's torn body, still bound in chains, swinging slowly at the corner of his eyes as if the chains itself have grown sentient and replaced his limbs. But every time he turns around, nothing is there. As he tries to fall asleep in Ning Yingying's arms, he swears that sometimes her light snores turn into his shizun's croaking sound every time he is just on the edge of falling asleep.

[scribescrawls]

One headcanon that I sometimes contemplate is that in the original PIDW the reason nyy never spoke up against the false accusations of sj having bad intentions towards her is because sj ordered her not to. And that he did this because he realized that even if she said anything there was a strong possibility the people around them wouldn’t fully believe nyy and dismiss her words as a young naïve girl who got taken advantage of. Sj could probably see where the chips were going to fall and as a strategist he’d know that the odds are against him and it’s likely nyy could get caught in the crossfire. If nyy spoke out, in doing so bingge would also potentially realize nyy might not be fully on his side blindly following him and if she knows differently about the truth of what actually happened and defends sj during the trial than there is a possibility bingge will just see nyy as a loose end and kill her like he plans to do with the rest of the sect, nyy marrying bingge and becoming his wife might have been less childhood love and more of a survival tactic in a shifting political landscape and I think about a headcanon where sj encouraged her to do that as a worst case scenario as long as it ensures she survives.

An alive wife might be better than a dead cultivator dying a horrible death for someone else's revenge, and I think it’s interesting if sj did that as his last act in protecting someone he saw like his own daughter ensuring she lives and told nyy to do whatever she had to do to survive in the future no matter how underhanded or who she had to throw under the bus to do it

[sweepingboy]

stay close to me, Fan Yuan, you should never underestimate your opponent.

or luo binghe’s plan to kill some bitchy arrogant god is ruined when the said god saves him from another demon.

he also gets poisoned and accidentally melts the demon lord’s heart in a process.

“you’re a really talented warrior fan yuan, probably the most talented of my deputies, you’ll make a mighty god but you need some discipline… now get up, we need to finish the mission”

[fan-fan-tastic]

MEME FULFILLED PROPHECY

Despite being a mass of potholes and quite repetitive, PIDW is very popular, popular enough to have a community of fans. This means not only having fanart, fics and even merchandise, but also an entire culture, with fandom lore and yes, even memes.

One of those was “When Mobei-Jun gets married” it was used to indicate something that would never happen, like “when hell will freeze over” or “when pigs will fly”. It was so popular that there were even some variants, like “it happen at Mobei-Jun’s wedding” or “when Airplane marries Mobei-Jun off”

Shen Yuan really liked this meme because it was supported by canon: there had been several scenes where after a fight, Luo Binghe would look over the spoils and let his right hand man pick a boon. Despite the ever-present trembling maidens, Mobei-Jun would always pick a weapon, or in an instance an ancient relic that had once belonged to his clan. So yeah, Shen Yuan used it pretty often, once he even let it slip out IRL, but luckily no one got the reference.

He even used it once in a thread that went viral: it was a pointless debate over OP’s incorrect interpretation of an arc. Shen Yuan was clearly right, he even had quoted several chapters to prove his point and so the other user had resorted to personal insults. OP had typed something like “You are ridiculous! When will you admit that you are actually a fan of the novel and not an hater?!” To which Shen Yuan had responded with “When Mobei-Jun gets married”

Now, this should have ended the discussion in Shen Yuan’s favor: the meme usually got lots of likes regardlessly of the context, and so he would have won the debate.

But OP for reason had decided to tag Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky himself.  “Great Master Airplane, would you marry Mobei-Jun if it means getting Peerless Cucumber admitting that he likes your story?”

To everyone’s surprise the author (sleep deprived an high on caffeine and energy drinks) actually did answer “Damn, I would marry Mobei-Jun for free”.

True to his writing style Airplane dropped the bomb to never addressed it again. That comment had started another meme, although less popular than the other about Mobei-Jun having been married the whole time to the author himself and the ship AirplaneXMobei became the most popular for the character. There few fans that had written crackfics had been insufferable about it, even resurrecting the ‘I shipped X before it was cool’ format just to flex.

After transmigrating into the scum villain and masterfully avoiding the original good’s fate, Shen Yuan one day receives an invitation to a wedding, accompanied by a mission by the System that just says ‘True to your word: User must respect the vow he once made’. Shen Yuan immediately understands what this is about: he would rather jump into the Endless Abyss than do that.

[thegoldenavenger]

a little wip preview for a big cat binghe and qingge bingliushen piece!

[rarepears]

Published Author Peerless Cucumber

it would be so freaking hilarious if Shen Yuan was like... a published author. New York Times bestselling fiction writer, churning out his first hit as a teenager who managed to win a picture book contest and then went on to push out multiple great hits like a hen laying eggs.

(Shen Yuan does recognize that being rich has given him a huge leg up in the industry, what with so big shots in the publishing industry being family friends or wannabe bootlickers. But clearly he had a lick of talent to still be such a popular author...

His most successful novel about backstabbing political families in a fantasy setting may or may not be based on the various gossip he hears coming from high society, just transplanted into a world of magic, dragons, and fights for the throne. It's now getting adapted for TV.)

And for all the critical acclaim that Shen Yuan has reached even before 25, the book he's most obsessed with is... the trash fire called PIDW.

Imagine that.

[nibbelraz]

Ooh, if we're discussing wild sqh theories I'd like to add mine! The reason why we never find out sqh's real world name is bc it's shang qinghua. And not bc he named the character after himself, but bc he has always been sqh. In pidw he was doing what he the character was supposed to, in svsss he doing what he can to save his life. Why else would he be transmirgated all the way back to his birth? Bc sqh is sqh. Idk if this is making sense Lol

I just mean that there was no one for him to replace. It's not like with shen jiu who had a life and story. There was no "other" sqh. I guess like a self insert? Like "if I lived in this world I would do xyz to influence the plot"? That's why there's no body for him to steal. It was always himself.

I think I understand what you mean! That's actually a really cool theory, and I'm totally on board because that would be a really nice thought especially when it aligns with the fact that why did Shang Qinghua have to go through from birth and not Shen Yuan

It also makes me think of like how Shang Qinghua assumed he would be acting like how he would in PIDW and of course he had to switch gears to survive but it makes me think of like when you think of how yourself will act in a certain scenario but then you're in that scenario and you react TOTALLY DIFFERENT

I think he might've overestimated how he would act when when actually faced with some plot points in svsss and underestimated some other elements, which is pretty interesting to think about!

They are one and the same

[gurggggleburgle]

Forgive me for being wrong on this but I don't believe it's ever specified between airplane and cucumber who died first and when so for everyone back in the world where pidw exists what is the span of time between there deaths. Because the impression I always get is PIDW probably finished at like a few months to a year after Shen Yuan finished it. And the reason I think this is with a few exceptions when harem novels blow up they only have a limited shelf life before the audience moves on to the next hot trash and I always get the impression that Qinghua was putting this out as fast as he could but also to get it over with so he could actually make something he liked eventually.

So this is my headcannon potentials. They both somehow managed to die literally at the same time in a comedic split screen fashion.

Airplane had actually been dead for months and nobody had noticed because he just finished his book and everyone assumed man was taking a break. Meaning cucumber was yelling at an author that wasn't even there. Powning facts and logic.

Shen Yuan died first after finishing the post and everyone assumes man just moved onto a new thing or whatever. Airplane maybe even replied to his comment and never got response and joked he killed cucumber.

All of these are great but here's the thing that find rife for comedic possibilities. Two prominent internet personalities an author and his biggest anti die in a potentially short amount of time between each other. The internet would lose their mind. I can see the conspiracy drama channel videos now. Someone out there would be like what if airplane and cucumber were in fact the same person.

And people start comparing facts and timelines. Start forming this idea that cumplane was a genius strategy to engage traffic on their work. They're like this one author tricked his entire fanbase and then someone hacks into cucumbers account and oh twist.

It's revealed that it was in fact this trust fund baby named Shen Yuan who died around the same time. Coincidence but weird. And people are like was this a power play. Were they a couple?

Did airplane do murder????!!! Or was it the other way around. Anyway pidw as a book gets buried under this inside joke meme about cumplane and people start accusing antis of just being cumplaners and its a whole thing.

I think that be fucking hilarious and peak internet. And therefore I want to believe that happened in cannon once they both transmigrated.

[analviel]

I see a lot of examination and discussion of how Shen Jiu had the setting/backstory of a protagonist, could've been a protagonist if not for a twist of fate, and in a way his shape is still a protagonist when SY literally piloted his body- but not. (I think we all get hung up a lot bcs he didn't become protag like he deserves but he also didn't become a full on villain, who's still a protag of his own story, but just a scum villain because of the misunderstanding, somewhere along the way something happened and held him back in that in-between place, unable to tip over completely one way or another.)

It's often brought up that he's undergone his own blackening into a scum villain and I think about that a lot, but you know, his settings never actually trailed off too far from the protagonist setting, with the 'from the lowest to the highest' template- idk if that makes sense, but anyways, I of course have read more than my fair share of fix-its, but often, if not always, it's a time travel scenario.

But WHAT IF:

But what if Shen Jiu, rather than swallowing the shards of Xuan Su, uses it to cut himself free of the immortal binding ropes or whatever is stopping his qi. Which is not LBH's parasite blood I don't think they have that ability but whatever. I mean, you'd ask how would he, without arms and legs, escape? A nifty thing we're all familiar with called author's will.

A time when LBH is away to deal with one thing or another, and SJ, after years of lifeless staring, and even more lifeless staring in the aftermath of YQY's death, moves. The thing about not attempting to escape for a long, long time, is that people lower their guards and grows complacent, and it's not as if there's anyone checking up on him to see if he's eating meals or whatever, LBH is more than happy to get suggestions from his wives for torture ideas but was very controlling of who gets to inflict it (Xuan Su was just left there and he did manage to swallow it). So Shen Jiu, with only Xuan Su's blade and it's inherent property as a spirit sword, not even an active one which means on one hand there's no active qi in it but the latent one from its materials, and on the other hand it's not bound to anyone and was more malleable, whatever. ANYWAYS. Skip.

Shen Jiu knowing of one thing or another, or several things that's a combination of common healing theory, rarer healing practices, less than righteous surgery techniques, equals bastardized body repair and ends with him frankensteining himself with some shaky qi threads. The needle is a piece of Xuan Su. He doesn't blink bcs his pain receptors are no more.

Scenario A.) I want SJ to play the 'mysterious wandering protag with a mysterious dark past and a mission for vengeance', only wanting to kill LBH before planning to retire from existance himself and he goes with his cool and angsty scarred body that he'd DIY'ed. The blood parasites are solved by something ruthlessly self-destructive only someone with SJ's coldness and lack of actual desire to continue breathing would do without even some initial testing. This would be done quick and dirty to keep LBH from teacking him. OR/AND

Scenario B.) I say or-slash-and because the scenario A could be cut off or maybe they could be combined. The handy dandy sun and moon dew!!! Plant it, grow it, kill himself, and recover his full potential all those years ago! Of course this would take quite a while, so he might need scenario A anyways. And conveniently enough, it puts him in the path of....... dun dun dun ZUZHI-LANG!!! And TLJ by proxy. Allies get! Maybe! Because TLJ wants to kill the sects, right? But his son did it here for him, so maybe he wouldn't bother anymore. Or maybe it's not enough bcs he hadn't killed all of everyone, so let daddy fix that right up. Or/and, LBH feels threatened and threatens in proper blackened protg manner and TLJ threatens back and flat out stomps him.

So. Maybe!

To expand on the rest of the Jianghu, the other 4 Peak Lords we know are alive, SQH, QQQ, WQW, and MQF. Bcs we don't have definite details on the timeline of PIDW, we can conveniently fill in space, put a lot of cause and effect, the cultivator world is in an uproar by the reveal that LBH is a demon (it's not as if they were okay with that, duh, if they'd known he was a demon, SJ's actions would've been treated as the only logical thing to do) and YQY is dead, AND SQH is a traitor, so that's down two - or rather three with SQQ- influential people, two of which were heavily involved in how everything is run (SQQ, while not actually lazy in his cultivation, was indeed lazy and unmotivated in most tasks that involved coordinating with others).

I really don't think SJ would feel even a little bit betrayed by SQH. To be betrayed you have to trust first, and his whole thing was that he never trusted anyone from CQMS. For SJ, SQH didn't betray them so much as his loyalty just belonged to another. Still would kill the rat next time he sees him tho (spoiler alert, he doesn't, kill him that is, but he does see him eventually).

So, I'm of the belief that Airplane's drafts included the Peak Lords as big boss too, where TLJ is the big boss of the demonic realm, they're the ones for the cultivation world, and my headcanon is that they were purposely met with sudden deaths one way or another in PIDW, and none actually died in a straight up fight, which is on brand with LQG's deviation, SQQ's trial, and YQY's thousand arrows (that I say are one of those bullshit golden finger artifacts of PIDW, maybe something like 'heavenly damned arrows of a thousand rays' that always flies true to it's target and could seal rare level pokemon rip-offs beasts for every single one. No reason that they would be normal p arrows, really). SQH might have fought or just been completely taken off guard by his lord killing him out of the blue with no chance to wriggle out. But Like QQQ was backstabbed. WQW was poisoned. MQF sacrificed himself for a beloved disciple (and that's why WQW died because he set out to find his martial brother but didn't know he'd already died. Awww).

(connected to another headcanon, the other five unnamed Peak Lords died long ago in the first battle against TLJ when he was sealed)

These people were meant to be a team. Or at least a set.

So SJ goes on an epic quest of getting power to kill his Qi-ge's killer via sun and moon dew possibly while he gets his tactician brain creating up something to kill LBH (OP characters are not killed in straight up fights, as we've learned, they're tricked or betrayed) and accidentally finding and gathering his siblings who, at that point, happen to have become guardians of havens and refuge communities in pockets of the world that holds the remnants of cultivator and human realm, where the demonic forces have spread far and wide in every realm. It's initially written to later, eventually be conquered by LBH. For example there's a hidden cave passage that leads you to Mu Qingfang's hidey hole, a pocket dimension with much rural fantasy aesthetic, housing parients and normal mortals with farms and houses woven to giant trees. Wei Qingwei is found underground creating weapons and defenses day in and day out to source to QQQ and MQF. Qi Qingqi with her armies always on the move, squads spread out in the realms, resisting against the demonic forces, helping Mu Qingfang rescue stragglers, from her old fairycore ensemble shifting to dragoncore, rarely resting with her inedia in the hollow of a mountain.

(xianxia aesthetic, whimsical aesthetic, aesthetic aesthetic aesthetic!!!!!!!!).

They..... Well. It's an awkward reunion.

SJ was shocked to meet the first lord sibling he'd seen since his imprisonment, shown only by a slight widened eyes, but emotions quickly gone. His first words is, "Do you wnat to kill the beast?"

He didn't care about the answer, if they said yes, then alright, if they said no, then he'd just walk away.

They say yes. Every one.

So, the rest really depends on how you interpret his relationship with them before the trial.

A). Was it a case of it's exactly what it looked like and they oh so very righteously hated him and he hated them back, a bunch of misunderstandings and not-so misunderstandings building up?

B). Did they have mutual respect and mutual awareness that everyone in the room they hold their PL meetings in were assholes of different flavors? Did they expect Shen Jiu to save himself in the trials, was dissapointed when he didn't but since he didn't give any indication of wanting to be saved, shrugged their shoulders and left him to his life, as they have always poked and snided at each other but always kept away from actually interfering with their lives (no matter how evil they thought the others were, because they may be evil, but they were still siblings and that just meant they had evil martial siblings. Love morally dubious group of PL but still ride and die)?

C). Or maybe they actually had a good relationship consisting of a lot of sharp teasing and reckless verbal and physical lashing and tantrums that you can really only get away with to your siblings, but was twisted by outside perpective?

And, on the way, maybe he learns to form relationships properly, with people that he loved nothing like the all-consuming soul twisting and mutually hurtful and destructive way he dedicated everything to Yue Qingyuan (from his loyalty to his shrivelled love and every hurtful words).

Just. Friends. Family. Siblings.

Imagine SJ eventually wandering off, with a burnt down Peak that would never again beholden him to promises, broken and otherwise. Grieving, yes, but somehow at peace than he'd ever been in. A very long time?

Ming Fan, who'd perhaps been in Qi Qingqi's Fairy Haven (of course that's the name, we've got a theme people) that was the group that consisted of people that bayed for the Emperor's blood or just the more active cultivators (with GYX mayhaps), a loyal disciple reunited with his Shizun. Or mayne he'd been the one to have found SJ as a human stick and helped him get spare body parts.

I imagine in this world, once Luo Binghe is... out of the picture, one way or another, busy dying or busy having an appropriately dramatic amnesia arc for him to develop character development, NYY takes over as the Empress, with her court of demoness and humans, and Harems becomes synonymous to Council. LMY her right hand helping keep everyone in line, who are also partially managed by SHL, who weighted her options and pros and cons and found establishing her position as left hand pretty good for now. The rest can come later. Imagine NYY growing up, not in brute strength bcs that wasn't how she was taught, nor is it her strength, but perhaps in a way that SJ would idly wonder if perhaps he should've endorsed her to Qiong Ding. Not all harem members stay of course, and some had to die. Ning YingYing becomes the First Empress of the age of peace in the unified two realms and first order of business is secure her influence. Second is ban slaves. Third is to encourage a tentative cooperation between humans and demons.

(Additional note: LBH having a protagonist halo doesn't make him unkillable, the death just has to meet several requirements, like being suitably glorious and impactful, and also maybe tragic- ehem killed by his own father or shizun, and seeing his washerwoman mother at his last moments. The protagonist is just another tool to set up the story and evidently, genre change is not impossible.)

(I imagine a confrontation between SJ and LMY early on that goes along the lines of SJ saying, "Wouldn't you know better than most, the thirst for vengeance for a brother's death?)

What if SJ's fix-it comes after PIDW, you know. PIDW being his tragic backstory. A slave who climbed so high despite the past clinging heavy on his shoulders, and then falling down lower than he'd ever been and resolving his issues and then climbing back even higher with more stable footing.

Qiu Haitang, Yue Qingyuan, Liu Qingge, their Five Unnamed Martial Siblings, Luo Binghe- regrets, and triumphs, all part of his story to mull over whenever he reaches the top of random hills and sets out his tea set. It's a bittersweet plot I like thinking about.

[scumplanecucumberaircraft]

SQH Headcanons

Writes short stories in his free time (lol what free time), they’re actually really good

Burnt out gifted kid

Can draw really well

Learned how to play the flute after transmigrating

SQH has a defense squad (SQQ/SJ, LBH, MBJ) (bc he deserves one)

Parents kicked him out when he came out

LBH respects and takes to SQH really quickly (cuz he’s his dad)

When SQH feels like no one gives a shit and feels overworked/exhausted he’ll go to a place where he can be alone and breaks down, he doesn’t want anyone to ever see him truly cry

Likes to play meme music on his flute, it drives SQQ crazy

Likes to put his hair up in cute space buns (bc I said so)

Misses watching dramas so decides to write his own, SQQ finds a page of it lying around and becomes hooked, he now frequently comes over to SQH’s house to read new episodes even though he claims to hate them

SQH/SQQ like to end their arguments with a kiss ☺️ it’s like the period at the end of a sentence

Stray cats like to adopt SQH

[lovefrombegonia]

THIS IS A HEADCANON:

I do not claim this to be canon at all. It's just a personal headcanon, bro. LOL

tw // references to childhood abuse, gore, torture

That Binghe vs Bingge extra did give me a PIDW scenario more bingge whump and qijiu angst:

Listen...I love badass, glorious, powerful cultivator Yue Qingyuan. I don't remember if it is canon or not if he is a serious threat to LBH and xin mo but I do like to think that he was the only cultivator capable of actually beating PIDW LBH, and LBH knew that. He knew YQY could rock his shit. He also hated YQY for enabling SQQ's gruesome abuse towards him. So, in his mind, YQY is like a corrupt, enabling sect leader who is also powerful enough to fight a pure-blooded heavenly demon like Tianlang jun while just being a disciple. He also knows that YQY, for some reason he decided isn't important to explore, really cares about SQQ. So, LBH decides to set a trap for YQY. He tears SQQ's legs off, tortures him into writing a letter, and decides 10,000 cursed arrows is enough to atleast seriously injure YQY, and then if he is somehow still alive, Xin Mo can take care of the rest.

Everything...goes as planned. ALmost. YQY rushes towards HHP to save SQQ in a maddening, suicidal rage. LBH cannot help but be a bit shocked at this vicious level of devotion this powerful, powerful sect leader has towards a scum like SQQ. He watches as YQY doesn't even really fight off all the arrows. It's like... it's like he really WANTS to be killed. It's like YQY is punishing himself. And yet, every tiny essence of life in YQY is trying its best to walk towards HHP. He will not stop until he dies. And...LBH can't help but laugh a little. A lot. Actually. 'This is the man you're willing to die for Sect Leader?!', LBH thinks, 'A scum who tortured his own disciples? A lecher who lusted after his own disciple? A filthy dog who killed how own shidi?? YOU WILL RIP YOURSELF APART FOR A WORTHLESS SCUM WHO NEVER EVEN RESPECTED YOU!! You're the dumbest human I have ever come across...'

He watches in awe as even pinned to the ground by several arrows, YQY is willing to tear him own flesh apart to try and move forward towards SQQ... One can't even recognise the esteemed CQMS leader anymore. He is two steps away from looking like a blob of flesh. As another round of hundreds of arrows rained on YQY, LBH watched the pathetic man turned to mush, and the magnificent Xuan Su vibrated wildly one last time before breaking into many pieces.

The sect leader was no more. LBH is a bit surprised at everything that just happened. His plan worked though. It's all that mattered. YQY was no longer a threat to him, and him empire. Now, he has to pay a visit to his shizun. He wanted to bring a piece of YQY's body to SQQ but the poisoned arrows had made sure nothing remained of him. Only the broken shards were left behind. He decided that Xuan Su would be a better "gift" anyways, after all, it was the symbol of YQY's might. The mighty that shielded SQQ for so long. It was the only thing that would matter to the scum, after all, SQQ did not really care about YQY. He insulted him every chance he got. With that thought, he went to the special prison. He couldn't wait to feel the rush of satisfaction as he imagines SQQ's face of horror.

'This...this is not...this is not right.', LBH thought as he watched SQQ's face froze in horror but...it's was a horror of different kind. 'He...should not be looking like that. Why is he looking like that!? Why is he...' and LBH couldn't clearly think for a moment. He was expecting SQQ to cry pathetically at a loss of a powerful backing. He wasn't expecting SQQ to have so many myriad of emotions...confusion, realization, shock, terror...guilt, sorrow...despair, HEARTBREAK, and then...madness. Submission. Submission of a man who has nothing to lose anymore. SQQ looked like... He was ready to die. No. No no no. This is not how it was supposed to be. NO!! SQQ SHOULD BE BEGGING FOR LBH TO SPARE HIM NOW! Crying and screaming instead of laughing hysterically like he was giving this mutilated piece of shit a funny stage show. “Luo Binghe, you’re a bastard, did you know that?”

He is still laughing. Still laughing but you can tell, Oh! You can tell that SQQ is in pain! LBH has ripped his left arm apart now and that pain is nothing compared to the agony that YQY's death has caused him. He is laughing, but his eyes already look dead, they look like they are already mourning! Already far away, only the body remains, trembling and seizing in pain to reach the departed soul.

“Luo Binghe, hahahaha…oh Luo Binghe, you…"

There is no satisfaction here. Because. Because... LBH looks on as he realises... This evil, abusive, traitorous, perverted scum of a man...was capable... Of love?? His shizun loved. He loved someone. SQQ...was capable of affection. Loving...truly loving someone so much. Loving someone so much so as to push him away. So... that's why YQY never tried to break SQQ out of prison. Loving someone enough to surrender himself to HHP so that YQY won't lose his status and honour by starting a sect war. Oh yes, YQY, was so ready to start a sect war for this scum...this... This scum who loved him. Something heavy, something unexplainably cruel and cold grips LBH's heart so tightly, he feels like if someone so much as pokes at him now, he will break apart. All SQQ ever did was torment everyone around him, spreading his miasma everywhere, and insulted YQY any chance he got...and YQY still loved SQQ all the same. SQQ was supposed to be a lecherous swine incapable of caring for anyone. He was supposed to be evil, and villainous to EVERYONE. A monster to EVERYONE. Because if he is a monster to EVERYONE then of course, he will be a monster to his own disciple, right? LBH found himself getting lost in these turbulent thoughts. He can't do that right now. No, not infront of SQQ.

'He is trying to provoke me into killing him. He will not have an easy way out like that.' thought LBH, as he told SQQ, in a calm, gentle voice, "You want to die? You can’t expect it to really be that easy. Shizun, after all the evil things you’ve done throughout your life, hurting those hostile towards you, hurting those with no malice whatsoever towards you, barely clinging to life and still able to throw a zhangmeng in with the lot—if you don’t die a little slowly, get a chance to suffer all the misery everyone else did, how else could you make it up to them?" After that, SQQ stopped laughing but his expression was unexpected. He looked almost...he looked like he understood. He looked like he was ready. For what? LBH didn't want to know anymore. Xuan Su felt heavier and heavier in his hand. It was no longer just a symbol of YQY's power. It was also a remainder of the genuine and unconditional love his shizun got from someone. He threw the damned sword at SQQ, walked away in a daze.

As he walked away, he couldn't help but think: why...? Why did this happen? If SQQ was always capable of loving then why couldn't he-- He was writhing in pain and heartbreak for YQY, a man who couldn't even protect him, who was so indecisive even at crucial moments, that he couldn't even rescue him from the water prison despite knowing he was capable of it!! Why mourn for the death of someone who failed to protect him when it mattered the most? Who didn't even really try, to be honest. YQY came here to die! Things started falling into places, and LBH hated this picture. Because the picture depicted a story he didn't even know he was a part of. A story of two people who didn't deserve the genuine and unconditional love and loyalty they gave to each other... And he played a side part. He hated himself for thinking this but he couldn't stop himself: if shizun was always capable of loving...why couldn't he love me back? It wasn't fair. IT WASN'T FAIR! IT'S NOT FAIR!! IT HURTS!! IT HURTS!! WHY?! WHY ME?! WHAT DID I DO WRONG?! What was my fault... WHY!!! LBH didn't even realise when he started crying.

[shen-shixiong]

I felt the need to join the Shen Yuan has chronic pain train because that is so true and canon

Edit: Posted this by accident instead of scheduling it so I’ll just rb it tomorrow and mayhaps draw sm extra tmr too but we’ll see

[captainkirkk]

yknow i think a lot about why sqh would immediately call pc bro if he had been leaving him hate comments for years. given his probable rich boy status it's possible he just supported him at the highest tier on patreon, which would make sqh basically unable to block him in the other life if he was that desperate for money, but would he actually LIKE pc? but then i realized. sy ran the pidw wiki. either publicly as pc or someone found out and told astts. think about it. thousands of hours of work, obsessing over it. how would you still have all that shit literally memorized y e a r s later without being able to reread the source if you didn't manually type it in, revising and revising and revising with every chapter

Personally I believe that sqh AGREED with some of what sqq was saying. After all, sqh knew he was writing garbage to appease the masses, and so when sqq raged at all the plot holes and wasted potential, sqh may have even agreed with him.

I love the idea of sqq being more involved in the fandom though, either through top tier patronage or running the wiki. He would. And he would still insist he was doing it because he didn't trust any of the other brain-dead fans to do it themselves, so SOMEONE had to.

[pumpkin-master]

PIDW as a novel must have had two different fanbases, cause like, Shen Yuan got interested because the World building was interesting, but you need to actually have a good start and not just the porn to get an audience like that hooked.

So I think the first fanbase must have been around during early PIDW when it was still good right? Since I myself can’t believe Shen Yuan could have been the only person reading during the novel to recognize good world building. Even if you’re just looking at the porn later on, you must see something interesting in one line or another that would make you go “huh that’s a neat idea, fun way to use that” no matter if your just looking to get your dick/pussy wet.

The second fanbase must have come around after hearing that the novel was a good porn story or whatever. So to them, the first couple of chapters/arcs must have just been the “porn setup”. Which they may or may not have actually enjoyed but who cares?

With this I can imagine that most of the “Intellectual” first fanbase left after the series became all papapa as Shen Yuan would say. But our cucumber is a determined guy and I think that first fanbase kept up with his posts even after because he kept up with the interesting lore and world building that they didn’t have the patience for.

[pippuns]

do you like pokemon at all? sometimes i try to picture what pokemon teams svsss characters or other characters would have

i used to post a fair amount of pokemon actually haha

idk what teams characters would have (aside from binghe having a team of only legendaries inexplicably because of course he does), but i know that liu qingge doesn't have pokemon. he is a terrible trainer. he does not let this stop him, and directly fights the pokemon himself.

people thought shen jiu didn't have any pokemon, and pidw it was held against him ("wow look at this guy, not even pokemon like him"), but he actually sort of does have pokemon? he just doesn't keep them in pokeballs, and only does stuff with them when no one is around to see. his pokemon love him, but they are all bitches. shen jiu passed the bitch factor onto them, and shen yuan has to deal with the most annoying, spoiled pokemon bugging him for food and refusing to get into pokeballs as a result.

shen yuan thought it was bullshit that he wasn't allowed to have pokemon originally because of the ooc function. as soon as it dropped, he did his best to get as many pokemon as he could. binghe was jealous of the attention shen yuan gave his pokemon. during the endless abyss years, shen yuan made the first pokedex (with liu qingge following him around, helping him catch pokemon, and honestly being a glorified pokemon himself).

yue qingyuan has a lot of dog pokemon. there is no reason for this. i just want him to have dogs.

mu qingfang has the typical healing pokemon, but also a fighting-type pokemon that liu qingge's family gave liu qingge as a reward for getting into cang qiong, except he threw the pokemon immediately at mu qingfang to take care of for him and then never asked for it back. liu qingge has forgotten about its existence. it has also forgotten about liu qingge's existence.

qi qingqi has a shiny hatterene and probably also the strongest team on the peaks.

wei qingwei has a bunch of tinkatons. only tinktatons. nothing else.

[a-particular-quetzalcoatl]

You have to wonder if at one point while writing PIDW Airplane saw a particularly scathing review from Peerless Cucumber and was like, “You know what? Just for that I’m going to make the next chapter even WORSE.” and then proceeds just to write the worst sex scene ever written.

Cucumber sees the next chapter and goes absolutely BALLISTIC.

It isn’t until post-SVSSS that Shen Yuan finds out that he did it on purpose and proceeds to lose his mind.