#while traveling to cang qiong

[4esthetic-dissonance]

has anyone done an svsss au where shen jiu had a sun and dew mushroom body ready to go? I just have this image of him going back to Cang Qiong to spy on his own funeral, prove to himself that Yu Qingyuan and everyone had really resented him the whole time and instead finding Disney Princess Shen Yuan fluttering around being nice to Binghe. And I don't know whether its from a fic I've forgotten or not

[scumvillainess]

time travel au where a post-pidw shen qingqiu somehow travels back in time (either through death, the magic that still remains in yqy’s sword, etc.) to when he was the head disciple of qing jing peak.

of course, being able to travel back in time doesn’t come without a heavy price and in this case, shen qingqiu ends up having to give up the ability to feel emotions as an equivalent exchange to being brought back to the past.

shen qingqiu of course thinks this is the greatest gift that he’s ever been given and quickly moves on with his life. everyone else (read: yue qingyuan, liu qingge, etc.) on the other hand, is appropriately freaked out by this new version of shen qingqiu who just doesn’t seem to care anymore about anything or anyone.

[moo-chemia]

So the cumplane runaway au has been in my mind rent free for the past two weeks and so I churn this out so pls excuse the word vomit as I explain what happens in this au.

SQH and SQQ realizes the other is a fellow transmigrator way earlier before the immortal alliance conference (in between the skinner demon arc and the demon invasion arc) probably due to SQH unknowingly outing himself and begins bonding with each other. SQQ brings up the sun moon dew mushroom and neither were planning on getting it until after the conference like canon. That is until they begin seeing how stressed the other is about their respective jobs/narrative roles after some drunk bonding sessions and convince the other to fetch the sun moon dew mushroom tgt and plant it so that they can fake their deaths to avoid doing paperwork and their narrative roles (SQH’s idea) and maybe go monster hunting/sight seeing around the world of PIDW instead (SQQ’s idea).

So during the IAC they fake their deaths just before SQQ has to push LBH into the abyss. SY and SQH wake up 5 years later in their plant bodies and immediately go monster hunting rpg style. They work as rogue cultivators and also trade in any rare monster parts to earn further income. They camp out during the night and huddle for warmth around the fire while reminiscing about their past lives (plural). They visit an abandoned temple for a forgotten goddess only to run into the cult that worships said goddess, causing them to almost be midsommar-ed. They visit a supposedly cursed sea only to run into the sea creature ‘haunting’ it and barely escaping with their lives. They visit lost cities to find supposedly extinct beasts and go bury treasure hunting, etc etc. Cumplane basically tour PIDW and have their best life (mostly) free of stress.

Meanwhile, if we rewind back to the IAC just after SY and SQH faked their deaths, SQH’s body is obvs now soulless and dead but the system forces SJ’s soul back into his og body and LBH still gets pushed into the abyss anyways opps. In the aftermath, SJ explains what happened with SY!SQQ and how basically SY and SQH are transmigrators and their whole situation from what SJ understands. SJ was a ghost all this time after the system forced his soul outta his body and he was lowkey haunting SY but SJ wasn’t always conscious, he probs only saw what was happening with SY!SQQ half of the time bc of the system. Cue Cang Qiong trying to track down one temporary SQQ and their logistics peak lord bc CQM is kinda burning down without him (and also to make sure both are ok)

Meanwhile, LBH speeds through the abyss and plans on taking over Huan Hua like canon and through some protagonist IQ bullshit that I’ve yet to come up with (probably through a grieving MBJ who's kinda been going crazy in the northern desert?) he realizes that SQQ is SJ but not his shizun, and he learns that CQM knows both SY and SQH are still alive and are trying to find them. LBH abandons his plot on taking over Huan Hua to team up with MBJ to find their two not so dead peak lords. 

Cue CQM vs the demon lords racing one another to find cumplane first for 6-7 years. 

Now back to cumplane. The two are enjoying their adventures together for a year or two after waking up in their plant bodies when they run into LBH and MBJ arguing with LQG in a village they’re travelling through. Cumplane realizes both the demon lords and CQM are trying to find them for some reason and panics when they overheard that SQQ is somehow still alive even though SY is right there and panics harder when they realize OG SQQ is back. Cumplane runs for their lives thinking they're fugitives now because their previous sect and the two demon lords are there to kill them/arrest them for impersonating a peak lord.

This is all I got for this au so far lol, this is still a wip so some things might change

[l33n1s]

No but Shen Twins AU where Shen Yuan is technically a member of Cang Qiong Mt sect but he's almost never there cause he's too busy traveling and studying/documenting all of the cool plants and animals.

But when he Does spend time at the sect it's Qing Jing Peak's emotional equivalent to Christmas, cause Shen Jiu is actually in a good mood (as good as his moods get at least) and Shen Yuan has picked up a habit of bringing sweets for the disciples. He just shows up and suddenly the bamboo house doesn't seem so empty, Shen Jiu actually seems comfortable for once, and the whole peak's atmosphere seems to shift.

And, it's always a very jaring experience for new disciples the first time they meet Shen Yuan. Cause there's this guy who looks exactly like their teacher but is so much less severe. His posture is a little more relaxed, he Actually smiles at them every once in a while, he doesn't get annoyed when they ask about his adventures and is instead very willing to share his stories (if he dresses them up a little who's to blame him). For many of them it stuns them to see Anyone be so casual with their teacher and be left alive after; to see him argue with someone in a way that is actually harmless rather than scathing.

It doesn't help though that noone actually knows When Shen Yuan will ever show up or how long he'll actually stay. It definitely varies, sometimes he'll just be passing through the area on his way to some other cool place, sometimes he stays for a few months in order to teach a couple classes on useful plants and dangerous animals.

Often during his visits, he visits the other peaks too. He talks with Mu Qingfang about about medicinal plants while he's treated for any injuries he has (it's not his fault he's accident prone, and if he fell of that cliff while trying to follow a very cool bird-thing no one needs to know). He has tea with Yue Qingyuan (who met him for the first time and said "our younger brother"); Shen Jiu is decidedly not happy about this but "oh well he'll live"

[sunderwight]

AU where there's no system (or a decidedly less restrictive one) and Shen Yuan transmigrates into an OC rogue cultivator before the start of the novel, and decides he's gonna steal the protagonist before Luo Binghe even gets to Cang Qiong.

The logic is sound -- he'll keep Luo Binghe from experiencing neglect and abuse at Shen Qingqiu's hands, raise him away from the pressure of the sects and the likelihood that anyone else might find out about his heritage and try to harm him over it, keep him fully away from the Immortal Alliance Conference, and then Luo Binghe's course will change trajectory because he'll have no reason to want revenge against the world and no access to Xin Mo. Shen Yuan will be able to spare Luo Binghe some suffering and possibly survive in a world less subject to the harrowing whims of a half-mad tyrannical overlord. Win-win!

However, the tricky bit is that he's not sure exactly how far ahead of the novel he is, and also Airplane didn't specify where Luo Binghe grew up. This means that Luo Binghe could be any age younger than twelve and in any number of places along or near to the Luo river.

Shen Yuan decides he's going to approach this by pretending he is looking for the long-lost son of his sister, traveling through the likeliest areas, asking after abandoned children who might fit the protagonist's description. It's a long shot, he knows, and he's mostly relying on the existence of Narrative Destiny. But eventually he is directed by several people towards a particular city, which is not as close to the river as he'd have expected Luo Binghe to grow up, but then again he only knows that was where baby Binghe was found, not where the washerwoman who took him in ultimately lived.

It becomes clear to him, though, that he's been sent to the wrong target. But also why he's been sent astray is apparent in nearly the same breath, because among the slave children living in this area is a little boy who could be his much younger clone.

Seriously, this kid looks just like him! Or, well, close enough. He looks a lot like Shen Yuan's actual nieces and nephews from his past life. It's uncanny.

Also, because of his search, the slave kids get wind of what he's looking for (his long-lost nephew) pretty quick. The boy with the obvious resemblance to him greets Shen Yuan's own assessment with wary cynicism, but he's just a little boy. So it's not difficult to notice the way he's also practically vibrating with hopefulness, half-hiding behind a protective older kid and looking at Shen Yuan with big dark eyes like he expects to be rescued or destroyed with whatever he has to say next.

Shen Yuan has a big problem now. He just knows that if he says something like "actually no this boy is too old to be my nephew" or whatever other excuse, no one will believe him, and also this poor kid is going to be permanently scarred by it. He's going to think Shen Yuan is lying just so that he can reject him. On top of that, he's not in a good situation here. None of these children are even remotely well cared-for.

Shen Yuan's rogue cultivator self isn't rich on the level of being like a wealthy sect leader or anything, but he's made some money since transmigrating by doing random cultivator jobs and quests along the way here. He uses it all to purchase two little slave boys (Do Not Separate), then takes another job and uses that coin to acquire a somewhat rundown manor which used to belong to the local gentry. The Qiu family (rings some bells but that's not exactly an uncommon name) kept it up for a while in case a branch family sprung up in need of a residence, but they've been in decline and the place is downright decrepit, so they had been looking to sell it instead. It's too big for a wandering bachelor like SY to ever need on his own account, but that's sort of the idea. He makes more money taking on cultivator work, at first taking his boys along with him for lack of any alternative. Nerve-wrackingly dangerous! Eventually he hires workers to start restoring the manor, particularly setting up a yard to be a school area, and then starts taking on any freelance jobs he can get in order to steadily buy out the contracts on all the other kids. He gets it nice enough to house and care for as many orphans as he can acquire.

Not because he's a big old softie though!

His story of looking for his nephew is a bust now, since he's apparently "found" the kid. So he's got to change tactics! If he can't find baby Binghe and the washerwoman, the next best approach is to create an opportunity for them to come to him. So once he's got his new household established, he starts offering free lessons to all the local kids. Not just the ones he's taken in, but also any who come by and want to learn some things. It's a tempting setup for anyone who wants their child to get education but can't afford a tutor, and Luo Binghe's mother had been entirely the sort of person who would have packed up and left her situation if there had been an opportunity for it.

On that note, SY also starts hiring single mothers to help look after his new gaggle of children and do the work he doesn't know how to do in these times, like keeping house, laundry, cooking, actually raising kids, etc.

His "little school" is not universally popular. A few groups try and ruin him, because the poverty in the region provides a basis of business for them. The ringleaders of the human traffickers in the area don't want their trade to dry up, even if it means selling all of their merchandise for this round, so when they find out that their underlings let Shen Yuan buy off all the kids they try and intimidate him into returning them (it doesn't go well for them). The Qiu family also isn't thrilled after it becomes clear what he's doing, and get him investigated by the local authorities (read: use their bribed officials and local goons to try and interfere.)

When that doesn't work either the sects get involved, because the Qiu go crying to Huan Hua Palace that Shen Yuan is sketchy and is trying to establish his own sect. So Shen Yuan talks his way around the matter, and frankly the Qiu are small fish even if they're the biggest ones in the local pond, so HHP doesn't care to pursue things much further. (Read: SY could mop the floor with the disciples they sent to investigate him, and it's not worth it to piss off someone this mysterious and powerful just to bully some impoverished children.)

Shen Yuan is appalled by all this bullshit though. Trust the world of PIDW to make it so hard just for a guy to teach some poor kids how to read and do math!

It makes him dig in his heels about it, because he is at heart a stubborn bastard. The fires that once fueled a thousand angry screeds on zhongdian literature site is now aimed at the local magistrate. One of the women he's hired on has some dirt on the Qiu family, which leads SY to dig up some more until he eventually has enough to turn the tables on them. Local officials won't investigate because they've all been bought, but that in and of itself is of some interest to their superiors closer to the palace, and so SY arranges an investigation of his own that goes way further than he thought? Turns out there are some ugly skeletons in the Qiu closets, and the imperial investigator comes down on them hard.

Well, he can't say they didn't have it coming? Though he does feel bad for the children in the family, especially the oldest son, who gets hauled off to jail along with his father. At least the girl is sent to live with relatives. Maybe he should have done more to shield the minors in the situation...?

His kids tell him not to worry about it, though, that apparently young master Qiu was known to run people down in the streets and beat his servants and do other cartoonishly awful things. SY's not sure how much of it is true and how much of it is his little flock of fluffy sheep trying to ease his conscience, though they do all seem to take a lot of vindictive delight in the whole affair. Especially Nephew, who clings to his sleeves and loudly declares that the investigator should have publicly flogged the discredited nobles so that everyone could go watch, and then begs him for sweets as if that wasn't a creepy thing to hear come out of an eight-year-old's mouth. SY just sighs and tells him he can have something good when he finishes his calligraphy practice.

Of course, it's not exactly easy running what is basically an orphanage-slash-school (and maybe a budding sect...?), especially when pretty much all of the kids have been traumatized and faced stuff like rampant dehumanization, food insecurity, abuse, and neglect. Hiring single mothers soon becomes not only a plan to try and lure in Luo Binghe's mom, but an absolute godsend of an idea because SY has no clue WHAT he would do on his own about the discipline issues or emotional breakdowns or acting out that some of the kids get up to once it registers that they're in a safe enough place to unpack their baggage.

Apart from Nephew, SY's favorite kid is the one who came with him, the oldest of the flock of former slave children. He's the big brother of the group, the one who tries his best to look after the others and to not make any trouble himself. But even poor Little Yue is still just a kid who has been through too much, and he also eventually starts having some meltdowns and struggles with processing everything that has happened to him as a vulnerable child in an unkind world.

SY really didn't mean to start a trauma center for mistreated children!

Though, that's still not necessarily a bad thing for Luo Binghe to one day come across, provided he ever actually shows up...

Eventually, Shen Yuan does figure out that he must be ahead even of Luo Binghe's birth, though he still doesn't put together that he's interfered in the scum villain's backstory. Probably something even more amusingly obscure, like the creation year of some random artifact Luo Binghe used in some wife plot or other, tips him off and he mentally throws his hands up in the air. He's got to wait DECADES? Maybe he ought to try and find Luo Binghe's biological parents and just follow them around at this point!

Not that he can, now, though, because he has to make sure no negative IQ villains (who will probably just be cannon fodder for a subplot one day) decide to send goons to literally burn down his orphanage. Also if he's gone for too long his kids get upset. Probably because no one else is as weak to their puppy dog eyes and pleas for treats and toys as he is.

At least it gives him time to shore up his position, and train Nephew and Little Yue more extensively in cultivation. Despite his initial assurances to HHP that he was but a humble orphan wrangler who was only incidentally a cultivator, Shen Yuan does also teach the other kids some basic cultivation exercises. There are a few reasons for that.

One is just the principle of the thing. No, these kids don't all have the potential to become great immortals or anything, but they can still learn some of it and it's good for their health if they do. The only trouble is if they try and push too hard or attempt things beyond their range, and that's a risk with everyone who cultivates. Or even just exercises!

Another reason is that it helps stave off the jealousy that some of the kids have towards those with more cultivation potential. Teaching a lot of the basics all around makes it into just another topic at school. Some kids might not be as good at it as others, but those kids might also be better at math, or memorization, or board games, and while cultivation can open more doors to people as adults, for the children this is generally enough to satisfy their sense of fairness. Or at least reduce outbursts and fights.

Finally, the impression that any of SY's kids might be a cultivator also makes wicked people more reluctant to try and abduct or interfere with them. Cultivators are revered and nearly mythological figures in the public consciousness. It isn't difficult to see why, if even a rogue cultivator NPC like SY* can mop the floor with most random muggers (*Shen Yuan is not a normal rogue cultivator). Not many people want to risk bringing SY's ire down on them, but of those who might chance it if he wasn't around to immediately react, even fewer want to risk that the kids themselves could kick their asses.

Not knowing that only two of the orphans probably could in fact mop the floor with them helps keep all the rest safer, and is more believable when all of them can conduct themselves enough like disciples to fool anyone who doesn't know what to really look for.

Developments that surprise Shen Yuan but wouldn't surprise anyone else who is paying attention:

People start leaving unwanted babies and younger children on his doorstep. Not all the time, but more than once has he had to frantically find wet nurses and worry that he's changed things enough that some fishermen might just randomly drop the protagonist outside his gate, and he wouldn't even know because Binghe would be a literal infant??

Nephew (SJ) and Little Yue (Yue Qi -- only Shen Yuan calls him "Little", especially when he gets taller than SY by the time he's sixteen) are prodigies who get really good at cultivation, really fast, and between that and Shen Yuan's OP skills they completely warp Shen Yuan's ideas for what normal cultivation potential looks like. This would probably cause more problems if he wasn't teaching all the kids how to cultivate anyway, but means his students actually do kinda run the usual range of skills for a small sect.

SJ and YQ swiftly reach the point where they need more advanced equipment than just SY's teaching can provide, if they're going to keep building their skills. Gaining access to certain tools, aids, and materials (like spiritual swords) is a real hurdle though, and usually is for rogue cultivators (one of the major disadvantages of no sect affiliation.) Shen Yuan is hesitant to use stuff from the plot, since it's For Binghe, but he eventually caves and starts going after some things that he doesn't think the future protagonist will miss much. He also ends up buying stuff from HHP, since they're willing to sell things like spiritual tools and weapons if the price is right, whereas most other sects like Cang Qiong reserve them for members only.

They get an invitation to the Immortal Alliance Conference. Not the one where the Abyss opens up, obviously, the one where (originally) Shen Jiu reunited with Yue Qi and killed Wu Yanzi. Shen Yuan debates on going but the boys really want to, and things have calmed down enough that no one's trying to burn down the school whenever he leaves these days, so eventually he figures it'll be interesting to see some of the Cang Qiong characters and should be safe enough if he keeps his disciples close.

They don't run into young Yue Qingyuan or Shen Qingqiu on the trip, but Wu Yanzi does show up and get killed, and SY only hears about it and assumes they just missed all that action. (WYZ just got caught by some senior cultivators who recognized him and killed him to avenge some disciples he murdered.) Nephew and Little Yue do meet young Liu Qingge, Shang Qinghua, Mu Qingfang, and Su Xiyan though! Which gives Shen Yuan the opportunity to tell them all (mostly Su Xiyan) that if they're ever in trouble near his school, they can come to him for help. Hint hint.

This open invitation ends up being accepted broadly by a lot of traveling cultivators after the conference, who from then on treat Shen Yuan's school like a free motel whenever they're passing through. Plenty aren't even people SY met, but it seems his statement was taken as a general one to fellow righteous cultivators all around! Luckily, this has some advantages. Shen Yuan has no qualms running off anyone who tries to take unfair advantage of him or especially his kids or staff, and no shame in conscripting anyone who is decent enough to help teach his students, even if it's nothing to do with cultivating, and somehow word gets around and people start bringing school supplies, medicine, food, or other useful things along with them as gifts to help repay the hospitality. Young Liu Qingge comes by a lot on his way to and from various quests, or even seems to just turn up randomly sometimes (he comes to challenge YQ and SJ to fights), and SY's just like "I guess this is happening now" and teaches him to recognize the early signs of qi deviation and advises strongly against meditating in caves.

At one point a young Shang Qinghua turns up in one of the spare rooms, very obviously hiding an ice demon. Shen Yuan again is just like "I guess this is happening now" and shelters them until Mobei Jun has recovered, and sends a message to Cang Qiong that one of their An Ding caravans was attacked and their disciple is recovering under his roof but isn't well enough to travel yet. Much less stressful situation for Airplane (who is desperately trying to figure out what he did to manifest SJ's benevolent uncle from somewhere???)

Su Xiyan seems like the only person they met at the Immortal Alliance Conference who doesn't turn up at their door in a state of emergency at some point.

A few years later, there is a big scandal involving her and the demon emperor. Su Xiyan disappears, Huan Hua Palace accuses Tianlang Jun of plotting against the righteous sects, and Shen Yuan is even invited to the meeting where they try and rally everyone to go kill Binghe's dad. Naturally, he declines to participate in the witch hunt, but the major sects agree to it. By luck (or narrative fortune) Shen Yuan comes across Zhuzhi Lang on his trip back home, and mentions the ambush and his distaste for it (not knowing who ZZL is). ZZL warns Tianlang Jun and the confrontation goes very differently, especially since there's no Yue Qingyuan wielding Xuan Su.

It doesn't go well for the sects involved. Huan Hua Palace gets decimated. The Old Palace Master gets killed. Shen Yuan is like uhhhh that's... whoops? Didn't Luo Binghe need that in the future?? Fuck.

But the sect isn't wiped out completely, they just take a massive beating. Some of their younger disciples end up leaving and turning up on Shen Yuan's doorstep, for some reason. The manor house is becoming too small to account for all of these foundlings! They have to expand. Though the expansions would be a stretch to term a "palace" they end up occupying a much larger chunk of territory, and even investing in farmland and some storehouses to help support the sect. That's still not really a sect, of course. Even if a lot of the business that would have normally gone to Huan Hua Palace starts coming to them instead. Once HHP is back on its feet the stream will probably dry out. Probably?

Zhuzhi Lang starts hanging around. He's actually looking for Su Xiyan or their baby, dead or alive and per Tianlang Jun's instructions, but he uses Shen Yuan's school as base camp for his kind of hopeless efforts to find any traces of them, while also looking for ways to try and repay Shen Yuan. All the kids are just like "oh great, another weird man has fallen in love with Shizun -- someone go run interference" about it.

Some years later, an older woman and her young son turn up. Shen Yuan's off on a quest at the time, so SJ receives them. As is standard procedure he gives the woman a job and places the boy in classes, after giving him the aptitude tests. The kid is cute and precocious, so SJ uses him to distract YQ while he himself sneaks out to go join LQG on a monster hunt (and claim the valuable parts of the beast's remains for himself), and neither SY nor ZZL notice anything until SY's going over the paperwork for stuff he missed while he was gone. Since he procrastinated, it takes him like a week to find out that Luo Binghe is finally under his roof. He's going over the admission form right when SJ arrives with The New Adorable Child to try and distract SY enough that SY will let him go on a solo hunt -- as far as being distracted goes, it is way more effective than even SJ anticipated.

Then he has to figure out how to let ZZL know, so that ZZL can let Tianlang Jun know, so that Luo Binghe will have more family than just his mom and more resources than just a shabby little not-sect! But even once he figures it out and sets up the dramatic reveal, TLJ is just like "great! so can he just stay with you? he's probably fine there" which... irritates SY.

SJ fully conscripts Luo Binghe as a minion in his many cons. He never lost his street kid conman tactics, although he now uses them less as a ruthless survival tool or weapon and more to just get things to go his own way. LBH has the face and disposition of a little angel, which SJ no longer can pull off as a full grown adult, so he fills a gap. LBH also knows full well what's going, especially since a lot of SJ's tactics involve throwing LBH at SY like a smoke bomb.

Luo Binghe inevitably still develops a big fat crush on SY, so this is fine by him. Especially when he gets older, he starts bringing SY tea and making him breakfast and running his errands until even SJ is like "wait a minute, this little brat's stealing my job!" and by then it's too late. Luo Binghe is SY's personal assistant, the disciple at conman puppydog eyes has surpassed the master! While SJ was busy being like "I'm going to trick this idiot into doing my chores" LBH was going "I'm going to trick this idiot into giving me his job".

SY takes too long to officially name his school so everyone calls it the Shen Sect, much to his embarrassment.

[rikan-oo]

Rogue cultivator SY AU [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

Shen Yuan comes back to Cang Qiong Peaks after a year of travel for his research. Shen Qingqiu is excited until he finally sees him.

SQQ: What is THAT?

SY: I'm happy to see you too *beaming eagerly with badly grown beard and mustache* It is a year of my hard work. I wanted to show you it so badly *proudly touches his beard* Impressive, isn't it?

SQQ: You're getting rid of that immediately.

SY: Huh?

SQQ: I say, you have five minutes to get rid of that abomination yourself, or I'll do it. *drawing the sword*

SY: W-what? Wait! I can't do this, I spent so much time growing it, so it looks good!

SQQ: And clearly, you have failed. Shave it. NOW

SY: You're just jealous I did while you couldn't. I look manly!

SQQ: I just don't want to kiss Mu Qingfang twin. At least he saw the reason and shaved it off.

SY: He did?! Oh, no. Shidi lost his wings!

SQQ: A-Yuan, I'm starting counting. One-

SY: Okay-okay! Does it really look so bad? *mumbles*

SQQ: Yes. *gets closer and takes his chin in his hand* You'll look so much better without it. Believe me. *leaning closer as it to kiss him on lips, but in last moment bits his nose*

SY: AW! YOU-*tries to back off*

SQQ: After you do this, you'll recieve a welcome kiss. Understand? *pinches his cheek*

SY: Yes! Stop doing it!

In the background:

LBH: I'd kiss him anyways, with beard or not.

NYY: Ning Yingying thinks Shizun would too. But Shifu looks better without it. He just needs proper motivation.

MF: Obviously, Shizun doesn't want to repeat "Beardgrow remedy catastrophe," which happened half a year ago. *shudders*

LBH: Didn't you also-

MF: I don't recall anything of the sorts.

P.S: For a moment, Shen Jiu thought let it be. Maybe it would work better than weil, getting rid of potential flies flocking to honey. But they would see SY's smile anyway, the way he crinkles his eyes, a playfull glint in them, blush on his cheeks and-

It won't work.

[red-garden]

Time travel au where Shen Jiu is the only one who doesn't remember, but everyone else does. So Yue Qingyuan saves him early, like in a couple of months after he was sold to the Qiu house, with the entire backing of Cang Qiong. Sj is happy, but there is a bit of a problem.

Shen Jiu wants to take Qiu Haitang back with them.

While Qiu Jianluo never crossed any lines, he was still being too much of a creep to him. Shen Jiu also notices that his behavior was also being directed at his sister. And since she was kind to him, he wants to get her out and away from her brother before things escalate.

Imagine baby SJ looking directly into YQY eyes and saying, "She needs saving too, Qi-Ge".

Yue Qingyuan, who wants to refuse because this woman helped ruined Xiao Jiu's life, immediately crumbles. However, Qiu Haitang also remembers and wants nothing to do with Shen Jiu or Cang Qiong, so she refuses. So, Shen Jiu has no choice but to leave her there, but not before letting her know that if she ever needs help to find him.

Imagine baby SJ going up to Qi Qingqi, looking up at her with innocent eyes full of awe and calling her Qi-Shijie, to ask if Qiu Haitang could have a place in her peak in the event she comes to Cang Qiong in search of refuge. Occasionally, he'll also ask her if she can look in on her once in a while if she has a mission near the area (Which she doesn't, even if she agrees, because she doesn't particularly like Qiu Haitang either).

Years later, Qiu Haitang does show up, haunted by the true monstrous faces of her family and the reality of her actions in their first life, after she herself burns the Qiu House to the ground. Shen Jiu accepts her with open arms, but everyone else doesn't. But, they tolerate her for SJ's sake since he deeply cares about her and wishes to repay her kindness.

Qiu Haitang effectively becomes an overprotective sister, partly due to guilt but also because Shen Jiu, who is not bitter and with a hell of a lot less trauma, is just a bratty little brother who is just too lovable.

SHIT EATING BRAT DISCIPLE SHEN JIU SAVE ME!!!

If all of Cang Qiong already knew he was a slave, he would have no reason to put on airs, free to be that little bitch of an urchin who throws rocks at Bai Zhan kids. I actually don’t think he would chose Qing Jing, at least initially. He just got his Qi-ge back!!! He’s staying in Qi-ge’s head disciple house, and if anyone tries to remove him, they’ll just get married so they can’t force him out!

Most everyone would hate him about as much if for his shitty personality this time rather than his bad reputation. But Qi Qingqi? Instant besties. Besties in crime. Besties in delinquency. I thing Qi Qingqi would feel soooooo bad about everything she thought about Shen Qingqiu she would spoil him endlessly. Xiao Jiu wants candy? Okay, jiejie will buy you candy. No one ever told her he used to be so little!!!!!!!!!!

[tossawary]

I was thinking about Xie Lian being able to snap the Xin Mo sword in half with his bare hands again, and then I thought to myself... "Wait, Xie Lian and Luo Binghe interaction could be really cute, though?"

Like, let's say that Xie Lian, during his time as a wandering trash god, accidentally falls into an interdimensional rift and ends up in the SVSSS world. His luck is bad like that. But while this is weird, sure, it's not that bad! The worlds are pretty similar and he can still make his living! So, Xie Lian wanders along as usual, curiously learning about this new world, picking through trash, occasionally punching demonic beasts to death to rescue awed civilians.

And at some point, Xie Lian runs into a young Luo Binghe while he's living on the streets. Let's say that Xie Lian rolls into town shortly before the death of Binghe's adoptive mother, has a few sweet encounters with this cute and kind child who doesn't have much to spare for a trash collector, and is there to comfort his new young friend when Binghe's adoptive mother passes away. Xie Lian is still there when Binghe gets thrown out onto the streets and he agrees to help the boy travel to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect.

So, Binghe gets to spend a month or two as a trash-collecting god's apprentice! He doesn't know that Xie Lian is a god. He suspects that Xie Lian is just a very powerful rogue cultivator who is living very humbly for some reason. The time isn't entirely pleasant, because life is hard and Binghe is grieving, but Xie Lian understands pain very well and is an excellent companion. He sees Binghe safely to Cang Qiong.

At which point, clingy Binghe does not want to separate from this extremely nice person, but Xie Lian insists on it. He wants Binghe to have a better life. He's worried that his bad luck will somehow spread to this poor boy who reminds him of so many other people he's loved and lost. Xie Lian supervises the confusing entrance exam, while the adult Cang Qiong cultivators desperately try to figure out who this strange person is (Airplane Bro is going "???!!!"), and then leaves wistfully. Binghe will later look back on this particular period of his life very fondly.

Xie Lian can then go in and out of the SVSSS plot as a person pleases! I think it would be very funny if Liu Qingge ended up with an unwilling crush on Xie Lian as well, when they have a spar for some reason and Xie Lian handily SLAMS him into the ground. Xie Lian would probably end up running into Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang somehow, both of whom I think would end up being a little obsessed with him.

I think that the best place to bring Xie Lian and Binghe back together is maybe after Binghe escapes the Endless Abyss. So that Binghe can have a nice cry session on Xie Lian's shoulder. Xie Lian can possibly then introduce Binghe to Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang. Or else generally fumble his way through facilitating Bingqiu actually communicating and being less of a painful mess. Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan) is very confused by this character?! Where did he come from??? Who is he??? He's very nice, though, and Shen Qingqiu is feeling maybe a liiiiittle jealous over Binghe.

(I don't know how to handle the System in this AU, but I do like the idea of the System just... not being able to handle Xie Lian. Xie Lian is a god from a different worldbuild. He kind of just breaks everything.)

(If you want to get a little angsty and ghostly, you could have a plotline in which Xie Lian helps the ghost of Shen Jiu somehow. Qijiu resolution?)

Binghe would probably be open to the idea of getting together with Xie Lian as well as Shen Qingqiu. He has a type! He is full of love! But Xie Lian is definitely not interested and is very good at wiggling away from come-ons, so Binghe respectfully doesn't pursue that passing thought / childhood crush, no matter what Tianlang-Jun is saying about threesomes again.

Binghe ends up using the (tamed? broken?) Xin Mo sword to send Xie Lian (his "gege") back to Xie Lian's own world. (Or Mobei-Jun could maybe do it?) Xie Lian has been gone for years and wants to see how his world is doing. Binghe tearfully promises to visit him regularly and to come get him WHENEVER HE WANTS. Xie Lian pats his head and agrees to stay in touch.

So, then Xie Lian tumbles out back into his own world and into the start of the plot of TGCF. And at any point in the plot of TGCF, he's now able to summon a heavenly demon from another dimension (with a super powerful sword that can move mountains?) who would absolutely be willing to fight all of heaven for him.

Xie Lian generally isn't going to do this, because he doesn't want to involve Binghe in his problems, even though Binghe is CHEWING THE WALLS with the desire to help him in return. However, Xie Lian does really like to go out with Binghe and Shen Qingqiu (and sometimes people like Airplane Bro and Mobei-Jun and Liu Qingge as well) to nice restaurants every other week or so. "So, what's new?" "Oh, I've ascended to heaven again and it's a little troublesome, ha ha. How are you?"

Hua Cheng is... nonplussed. On one hand, he's a little jealous. On the other hand, FINALLY, people can recognize that Xie Lian is the best person in the world. Luo Binghe has GOOD TASTE and is just some well-meaning kid whom Xie Lian likes a lot and who rightly thinks heaven sucks. Hua Cheng is determinedly shaking Luo Binghe's hand and giving him advice from a Ghost King to a future Demon Emperor.

(Tianlang-Jun CANNOT be allowed into Ghost City. He will NOT leave. I think that Hua Cheng is strong enough to throw him out if necessary, but Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang would just keep slipping back in somehow. Permanently banned from the gambling tables no matter what he offers, but Tianlang-Jun is still allowed to hang out at the Ghost City playhouse because he quickly becomes the favorite audience member of all of the ghost actors. He has AWFUL taste. Yin Yu hates this guy.)

(Also, I do think that Xie Lian would not really like the Xin Mo sword at all. E'ming is a beautiful baby boy made from and by Hua Cheng, who is Xie Lian's favorite person in the world who has never done anything wrong ever. Xin Mo is some random blade that destroys Luo Binghe's mental health and turns him into the worst version of himself! Xie Lian could and possibly should snap that possession sword like a twig.)

[beforetimes]

hey mf what about healing in ur reversal au. huh. what about love. what about peace. also would this be romantic … would the role reversal also apply to their romantic feelings where its shen “so deep in denial” yuan who realizes he has a crush first … thats funny. but the most important part is the healing actually Can You Fix Them Now …

lllmmmfffaaaaooooo... i got you don't worry.....

yes! it would be romantic. but i think shen yuan's obliviousness is something that carries over throughout many universes and that rule would hold true here. instead of working with the 'luo binghe is going to kill me to get revenge' mindset, it's tweaked to be 'luo binghe is going to kill me to level up and become the greatest cultivator there was.'

i think luo binghe would probably figure out he's in love with shen yuan sometime after sacrificing himself for him in jinlan city. and he would resolve to try and convince shen yuan of this fact while shen yuan would just be? so entirely confused and conflicted. constantly swinging between 'luo binghe shouldn't be acting like this' and 'the plot dictates that i'll die by his hand, this must be a trap and i refuse to get caught in it.'

oh what would be fun! would be like. since i'm not including tianlang-jun's capture as canon in this. that storyline would shift over to these two! where cang qiong and huan hua's collection of cultivators tries to convince luo binghe to lure shen yuan someplace so they can trap him — because following luo binghe's 'death' in jinlan city, shen yuan went a bit. nuts.

luo binghe disagrees, obviously, but something happens that leads to shen yuan believing that he's been betrayed, anyway. sort of like the face off at the very end of the third novel, shen yuan and luo binghe tear away from the rest of the crowd and convinces him of what luo binghe's been trying to tell him for ages now—that he loves him and he'll never send him away again, he doesn't want shen yuan to leave, he never has, he keeps misspeaking and he needs shen yuan to know, without any confusion between them, that he'll stay with him forever. and he loves him.

whether or not they'll have sex is up in the air; i think here it wouldn't be necessary. shen yuan's relief at not dying and that his shizun still loves him despite his demonic nature would be enough for him.

and the healing; a lot of it i think would come down to communication. the bulk of misunderstandings between them were mostly due to luo binghe's words; "you can't leave," "you were supposed to be dead," etc. and shen yuan sees these and reads into them far too much—i think once the dust settled and the two departed from cang qiong mountain to live their own lives, shen yuan would always talk to luo binghe, at first hesitant as if he's scared to get scolded or told to be silent before picking up steam and getting less and less stilted as time passes. he would tell stories about his 'travels' (strange things he came upon while searching for luo binghe following his death in jinlan) and tell luo binghe about the demonic monsters he's grown so fond of.

and luo binghe would in turn! offer that same openness with shen yuan, instead of holding his cards close to his chest the way he did when he was depressed and unwilling to live, let alone speak. testing boundaries when it came to touch, pda, just about everything, would be done step by step, carefully on both ends; shen yuan scared that he'll hurt his shizun because of his demonic nature and luo binghe still harbouring guilt from pushing shen yuan into the abyss.

a lot of late night convos would be in the cards for them as well, i feel. moon shining over their bodies while they lay curled up, face to face in bed, fingers tangled together while shen yuan haltingly tells luo binghe about the abyss. and in turn, an almost clinical reiteration of qing jing peak's general upkeep following shen yuan's supposed death from luo binghe. getting it in the open doesn't make it better, necessarily, but they're both privy to slight habits to avoid, details not to mention, and smells and sounds to avoid as to not upset the other.

i think they wouldn't live in the bamboo home nor in the demon realm. a small home somewhere else, nestled in a quiet meadow within the heart of a forest where shen yuan could encounter the local wildlife and where luo binghe could retreat when his peak became too suffocating. books dotting just about every piece of furniture because shen yuan had a bad habit of starting a book and picking up a new one without finishing the former. luo binghe has the kitchen stocked to the brim and every few weeks invites shen yuan with him to search through the local flora for spices and vegetables, tending to a slowly-expanding garden next to their home. there's a stream nearby that leads to a deep and lonely pool that shen yuan and luo binghe sleep next to, sometimes, stars from the night sky reflected in the water so it feels like touching clouds and pinpricks of lights when shen yuan's hand skims over the surface.

i think shen yuan would have issues with doing his hair; he wasn't good at it as a disciple and got into the habit of letting shizun fix it up for him before he was sent into the abyss. and didn't have time to fix it between fighting for his life and being constantly drenched in blood. so upkeep with his hair always ignites a deep sense of dread in him. he tries and vaguely succeeds after coming back from the abyss, but it's always a fight to wrangle it that leaves his scalp stinging. luo binghe would make up for so much lost time by carefully and slowly gathering his hair, pulling it up and pinning it in place with a hairpiece, all with gentle hands every morning. and shen yuan would let himself get pampered before returning the favour, deft fingers combing through luo binghe's curls. i think! this is the first truly intimate thing between the two of them that they'd let become a habit.

their home would still be connected to the bamboo house; an array, maybe? so luo binghe could be there and back without too much travel. but as far as qing jing peak was aware, there was only the bamboo house and nothing else. shen yuan and luo binghe are very happy to let this assumption become an imagined universal truth.

edit: well i said sex wouldn't be a necessity but i thought up a version of that particular maigu ridge scene in this universe that could work and! now i am. definitely writing it in. trust

masterpost

[komihoyinsblog]

svsss time travel au, where Yue Qingyuan wakes up in his child body a few weeks before Shen Jiu was supposed to enter the Qiu family. After dying from a thousand arrows and all the horror he's experienced, something in Yue Qi breaks in him and he decides "to hell with everyone". He takes Shen Jiu's hand and without further ado, he goes to Cang Qiong. (Shen Jiu genuinely doesn't understand what happened to his kind and gentle Qi Ge after hitting the rock, but he still doesn't mind getting away from all the other troublesome and bratty kids)

After joining the sect, their lives progress well and without problems almost. Yue Qi gets his sword this time without threatening his life, Shen Jiu is considered one of the most powerful people and trains regularly with Liu Qingge(they have a very strange friendship, Yue Qi watches them very closely), both become head disciples. And then comes the news that an attack on the demon lord is being prepared.

Yue Qingyuan ponders about this event and comes to the conclusion that Tianlang Jun is Luo Binghe's father. At first, he ponders about finding and killing Luo Binghe while he was still an infant and ending it all in a simple way. And in the next moment, Yue Qingyuan feels so much pressure from the world that his knees buckle. Literally, the world itself is resisting his plans. Yue Qingyuan then decides that compared to Luo Binghe, Tianlang Jun is a very peaceful and calm person, and he would rather rule than that monster.

Yue Qingyuan goes to Tianlan Jun as the "cloaked man from Cang Qiong" and offers to save Su Xiyan in exchange for one condition. Not a single person from their family, not a single heavenly demon will ever appear at the gates of Cang Qiong ever. Tianlang Jun agrees, he personally never wanted to mess with people from there and this is a mere trifle in exchange for information on Su Xiyan's whereabouts.

When Luo Binghe opens his eyes, he is not in his palace surrounded by hundreds of beautiful girls, but in Su Xiyan's arms. And yes, he's a freaking baby and doesn't understand anything! What's going on???

By the age of eight, the little prince(former emperor) of demons was able to realize that in this life, the "mysterious stranger in a cloak with Cang Qiong" helped his parents and so everything changed. Luo Binghe is 99% sure that it's his Shizun. Who else could it be? Especially when for every request he makes to send him to Cang Qiong, he gets a firm refusal and mentions the treaty that no one from their family is allowed there. Luo Binghe chuckles quietly and simply runs away at the age of 12 to be selected for the sect.

When Luo Binghe arrives, he is flabbergasted. His Shizun isn't there! (Yue Qingyuan took care of this by deciding to be over-insured and sending his favorite brother on a mission with a hundred percent guarantee that he would be gone for at least a week). Instead of Shen Qingqiu's cold eyes, Luo Binghe is greeted by Yue Qingyuan's even colder eyes. Each of them recognizes the other as a time traveler.

Goosebumps crawl down Luo Binghe's back when Liu Qingge points his hand at him and asks Yue Qingyuan something. The latter shakes his head without taking his eyes off Luo Binghe. Liu Qingge shrugs his shoulders and walks away. Luo Binghe has long since stopped digging and is watching Yue Qingyuan. Yue Qingyuan, using a special technique so that only Luo Binghe can hear him, utters, "Even as a disciple of Bai Zhan, you won't be in my sect, get out of here," and leaves. Looking at his cold smile, Luo Binghe definitely understood why Shen Qingqiu and the sect leader had hit it off. This did not mean that Luo Binghe would give up without a fight.

[sapphicjackal]

Bingyuan Soulmate au 5

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Shen Yuan told himself he would wait until the next day to read the web novel he found, Proud Immortal Demon Way. The web novel had only been uploaded for 20 days now, making it fairly new and unknown. It was probably only because Shen Yuan had searched with keywords that the exact webpage came up. So far it only had 4 chapters, each one being a reasonably sizable length.

Normally, this was the kind of story that Shen Yuan would truly enjoy.

It seemed intriguing and held great promise. The bits of world building that had already been sprinkled in were captivating and promising. Shen Yuan could see the makings of a great premise.

However-

The protagonist is named Luo Binghe, and this is a story of his suffering. 

The first chapter starts with a baby, one abandoned to float down the freezing Luochun river during the coldest night of winter. Named Luo Binghe, the unwanted orphan lived on the streets. How he survived infancy was left vague, but he was eventually taken in by a poor washerwoman who had little to provide other than the love in her heart.

Luo Binghe wanted for nothing, even while having so little. He was spat on and bullied by the masters that his adoptive mother worked for, but he was content purely because he had his mother. She taught him to cook and she brushed his hair while telling him stories of peerless immortal cultivators. 

She worked tirelessly to provide for him, all without a single complaint and wearing a warm smile. She saved meticulously for a long while to be able to afford a jade Guanyin pendant for her son, only to find out that the jade was fake. The heartbreak of it all took its toll, especially when there was no extra money for food and her health began to take a turn for the worse.

Luo Binghe had to beg for food to give her, and work to get her medicine. On the day she died, he went out to beg in order to get her a bowl of watery congee. He was beaten for the right to have a cold bowl of food, and by the time he returned, she was already dead.

From there, he lived another two and a half years on the streets until he turned 10, the minimum age requirement to take the test for the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Renowned as the top cultivation sect in the world, it was also the only sect open for anyone to join so long as they had potential and were chosen by a Peak Lord. 

Luo Binghe traveled up the countless stairs and threw all of his effort into digging a hole, wishing with all his heart to be chosen. He was overjoyed when a peerless immortal cultivator stopped before him, one who looked distinguished and elegant, dressed in greens and white. Luo Binghe was the only one chosen for the second highest ranked peak, Qing Jing Peak.

This should have marked the turning point for Luo Binghe’s miserable luck, the beginnings of something good.

The first chapter ends with Luo Binghe’s tea ceremony, with his new Master dumping hot tea over his head with a cold look of disdain. Luo Binghe’s tears mixed with the dripping tea while his Shizun scoffed at him, proclaiming him a worthless Beast. Shen Qingqiu tossed him his manual, telling him with a sneer to learn it well before kicking him out.

Things don’t get better.

The next day, Luo Binghe received his materials from the Head Disciple, Ming Fan. He was only given the worst of what they could offer, and he was barred from being allowed inside of the Disciple Dormitory. Luo Binghe was forced to find shelter in the woodshed which became his home.

It marked the start of the relentless bullying from Ming Fan and the other disciples. Shen Qingqiu had clearly marked the boy as a pariah, meaning the whole Peak left him to fend for himself. He was kicked out of lessons with some Hallmasters, and given endless chores that kept him from attending the classes he was allowed in. The only person who treated him kindly was Ning Yingying, but this only drew further ire from Ming Fan who had a crush on her.

Life was miserable, but Luo Binghe did his best to rise above it. He did his work, and he learned what he could. It took months for him to even be able to read his manual, but once he could, Luo Binghe threw himself into studying cultivation. Only. He didn’t know that the manual was a fake. One made to look genuine, but would waste the years of greatest potential for a cultivator, and could even lead to death.

The fourth chapter left off on Luo Binghe being whipped for hours because Ming Fan blamed him for messing something up. Luo Binghe was left bleeding in the dirt while his scum Shizun walked away.

Shen Yuan finished reading with a foul taste in his mouth, staring blankly at his phone screen long enough that it turned off automatically. Normally, this kind of narrative was one that Shen Yuan enjoyed. One where a protagonist starts from nothing and climbs their way to the top, then slaps their faces and takes revenge on everyone who had pushed them into the dirt when they were at their lowest. Shen Yuan liked YY stories, it was easily his favorite genre to read.

Maybe once this could have been the start of Shen Yuan’s favorite story.

Instead he felt nothing but sick.

His soulmate had told him pieces of this information, accompanied by all of the feelings that went along with it. Binghe had told him that his mother died close to three years ago, and how much he missed her. 

Maybe if he found the story first, he would have seen Binghe as a protagonist first. Maybe he would have found it cool to be soulmates with a fictional character. It wasn’t even that hard for Shen Yuan to wrap his head around. He knows tropes very well, and a modern guy finding out he’s soulmates with a fictional character is a popular genre.

But-

Shen Yuan has spent hours writing to his soulmate for the past few days, in those snatches of time that Binghe manages to steal. He’s spent a few days getting to know his Bing-er in all of his earnest and sweet glory. Binghe was a true white lotus, born in the muck yet managing to remain pure despite it all.

Shen Yuan has spent 15 years loving his soulmate. 

Ever since he knew of the concept from his parents. He’s been writing to his soulmate since he could hold a pen, first it was nothing but the sloppy scrawls and doodles of a child, but he learned quickly to write. Literacy had extreme importance in society, and children were taught to read and write as soon as possible so they could communicate with their soulmate, especially among those with wealth.

Binghe has been at the end of every message. 

Even if they’ve only known each other for a short time, Shen Yuan has cared for his soulmate his entire life.

Binghe is more than a protagonist. 

Shen Yuan didn’t manage to sleep a wink. The first half of his night was spent reading, and the second half spent waiting for Binghe to wake up. He knew Binghe rose with the sun, and so he only had a few more hours to kill while waiting. He flipped through tabs on his phone, opening and closing apps restlessly. 

Shen Yuan doesn’t think about his soulmate being abandoned at birth. He doesn’t think about years of getting tormented by those around him. He doesn’t think about a confession laced with pain. This one likes Qing Jing Peak. Qing Jing Peak does not like this Binghe.

No.

Shen Yuan doesn’t think about it at all.

He lost track of time, flinching in surprise when he finally felt the tingling swipe of a brush on skin. Shen Yuan sat up in bed and turned on his lamp, fumbling for his marker. He couldn’t help his smile at Binghe’s words even if he tried. All of the suffocating heaviness was lifted all at once, leaving him feeling light and unburdened.

“Wishing Yuan-ge a happy day!” Binghe had written, his brushstrokes precise and careful, words filled with happiness. 

“Good morning Bing-er.” Shen Yuan responded, returning the sweet greeting of his little white lotus of a soulmate. 

Shen Yuan bit his lip, staring down at his arm. He had thought about what to say for hours now, so he pushed back his strange hesitation and began to write. “You told me you had trouble cultivating, I thought about it last night. The most important part of learning is cross referencing. Is there any way you could look at someone else’s manual?”

“Yuan-ge?” Binghe wrote, shining with innocent curiosity.

“Make sure your material is real. People could be trying to hurt Bing-er with fake material.” Shen Yuan asked, full of worry and suspicion. 

“This one will check.” Binghe responded, he felt faintly skeptical, but completely truthful. It took a heavy weight off of Shen Yuan that he didn’t even realize he was carrying.

“Thank you, Bing-er. I hope I’m wrong.” Shen Yuan wrote, feeling utterly relieved though it was threaded with an underlying anxiety. 

Shen Yuan went through the rest of his day with Binghe’s situation lingering in his mind. He ate breakfast the chef made with his mother and meimei, both his father and his older brothers already left for work. He went back to his room and did his schoolwork.

Technically, Shen Yuan attends the best private academy in Beijing. However, he doesn’t actually go onto the campus because of his health concerns. His parents worked it out so that all of his work is sent to the house and his tests are administered by teachers who come to him instead. 

Shen Yuan used to resent it when he was younger, wishing that he could go to class with other kids and make friends, but now he’s glad he does have to spend most of his day surrounded by other teenagers.

In addition to his standard curriculum, his mother also has him tutored in the four arts. It was something that Shen Yuan actually enjoyed though his siblings found it to be tedious. Now he would have to take it even more seriously and learn more outside of his lessons so that he could teach it to his soulmate. 

Hours earlier than he expected, Shen Yuan feels a brush on his skin. He can immediately tell something is wrong, the feelings are overwhelming, upset, and heartbroken. Shen Yuan excused himself from dinner and went to his room, checking his wrist.

“You were right, Yuan-ge. It was fake.” Binghe wrote, full of helpless anger, bitterness, and pain.

Shen Yuan swallowed heavily, feeling furious for Binghe. The confirmation that his soulmate's life is at the very least connected to the web novel was something that Shen Yuan would need to think about later. For now, he needs to comfort his soulmate.

“I’m so sorry, Bing-er. You deserve better.” Shen Yuan wrote, wishing that he could do more for Binghe to keep him safe. If everything is true in that web novel, then right now his soulmate was living in a woodshed. A fucking woodshed. He was being hurt by everyone around him and doesn’t have a single good thing to his name. 

Binghe deserves nothing but the best and now Shen Yuan is all too aware that Luo Binghe has been forsaken by those around him. Shen Yuan wants to find the author and thrash them until they answer why Luo Binghe has to suffer. Why did they do this the the sweetest person that Shen Yuan has ever met? How can they stand to hurt Luo Binghe who has never done anything wrong but had the whole world against him from the start?

“Yuan-ge.” Binghe wrote, his brushstrokes shaky and filled with desperation, longing, loneliness, and pain.

Shen Yuan choked on secondhand pain, feeling his heart break for the overwhelming betrayal that Binghe has suffered. Shen Yuan wishes nothing more than to be there for his soulmate, but all he can do is write. 

Shen Yuan concentrates on sending comfort and love, writing messages one after another to his Binghe.

“My Bing-er, I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

“We’ll figure this out, Bing-er, I’ll help you.”

“I’m so sorry Bing-er, you deserve better than this.”

“Bing-er deserves the world, I would give it to you if I could.”

“I’m here, Binghe.”

Shen Yuan runs out of space on their left arm, so he leans over to begin writing on his leg. He choses one sentence, the most important truth he wants to impart onto his soulmate. He writes small, repeating the line uniformly spaced out one on top of the other until it fills the skin from his ankle to his knee. 

When Binghe still hasn’t responded, Shen Yuan starts writing a symmetrical series of lines on his other leg.

“Binghe is precious.”

He had nearly finished on his second leg when he finally received a reply from Binghe, right above their knee.

“I wish Yuan-ge was here.” Binghe wrote, his words containing fathomless amounts of yearning.

Shen Yuan grit his teeth, wishing he could fulfill Binghe’s wish. He wanted nothing more than to give Binghe everything. Everything he deserves, all the love he should receive. Shen Yuan feels useless, but he pushes that away.

All he can do is try his best to help Binghe in any way he can.

That day, Shen Yuan subscribes to Proud Immortal Demon Way, and he never misses reading an update as soon as it is uploaded. He leaves comments criticizing the author for making Luo Binghe’s life so needlessly miserable. He hopes the author will listen and lessen Binghe’s suffering.

[shizunitis]

your og idea of binghe just avoiding sqq after the abyss after time traveling is rotting my brain. all I can think is sqq growing increasingly agitated when he realizes binghe won't be coming after him after all. that he might just never see binghe again. that binghe doesn't even care enough to hate him anymore? and this is how he ends up orchestrating sqq's downfall event 2.0 to get binghe's attention because HE DESERVES HIS REVENGE OKAY!!! while binghe wonders what the fuck is going on now where did he go wrong why is this all happening

EXACTLY! YES!

and binghe can’t even act panicked about it! he’s a good actor, he knows the stakes! he can’t just run away with his tail between his legs; he has to prove shen qingqiu right, and then everything will be fine!

they arrest shen qingqiu and binghe fucking sprints over realms to get there in time and distract everyone with a half-assed and ultimately failed assassination plot against the old palace master. when no one manages to catch him, he finally does the worst thing possible. a crime unforgivable in shen qingqiu’s eyes.

he monologues.

for a good chunk of time, luo binghe goes on and on and on about his monstrous, evil, deliberate plans of destroying the cultivation world. and what better way to do that than to attack the wealthiest sect in a time of such importance as a cang qiong peak lord’s trial? hah! fine! you’ve backed him into a corner!

(he is freely walking around and no one is trying to stop him. shen qingqiu’s eyebrow twitches.)

he’ll explain! the truth is—

(shen qingqiu winces.)

—he manipulated the peak lord’s memories! he’s the reason shen qingqiu’s qi deviation altered his personality so badly!

(shen qingqiu’s brain makes the “?” zelda sound. binghe! this master is a transmigrator! at least lie better!)

he was born evil! and so he will wreak havoc upon the human realm! simply because of his evil nature! that he has! that. natural evil. he— he surely knows how to sow chaos simply for the fuck of it and for no end whatsoever! …certainly.

shen qingqiu finally tries to intervene and binghe just talks over him. he goes, “and you! my so-called…” he winces, hides it under a pitying gaze, and apologises in his mind. “my so-called shizun! you were my pawn for so many years! this lord had use of you still, but alas! my plans were thwarted by these heartless, cunning cultivators! damn you!”

he does not shake his fist, but only just. he harrumphs and leaves in a flurry of sleeves and demonic qi. very evil-like, yes.

the cultivators gathered for the trial are, to put it mildly, very confused. the old palace master is forced to apologise, but nothing else comes of it, which gets binghe thinking: finally! a reason to torment someone! time to plot evil things!

his evil plots, over the next however many years, leave almost no victims. everyone is starting to catch on. finally the whole su xiyan thing is revealed and the cultivators ask him (after another… evil… plan) if that’s why he hunted down the old palace master and interfered with huan hua palace’s missions so much.

“uh.” he takes a moment. “sure. yeah! sure, let’s go with that.”

“then why’d you fight tianlang-jun? it, like. levelled a mountain. zhao hua spent three months treating him and he still tilts to the side when he’s running.”

luo binghe does not answer. shen qingqiu and shang qinghua look at each other like this

and liu qingge finally starts suspecting something is amiss here.

meng mo is very, very tired. he’d thought for a second his not-disciple would finally act his lineage. he should’ve known. this useless kid only knows three things and two of them are shen qingqiu related.

[the-tyler-as-in-skyler]

posting more svsss fanart this time half finished doodles of a lil au that’s been cooking in my brain for a few weeks

fox shen yuan aus have my heart and soul anyways he gains more tails the higher his cultivation is :33

plot points for this below the cut (also apologies for the terrible image quality she’s been through a lot (my google drive))

- shen yuan is a fox demon, he gets popped into a very young fox demon similar to how airplane gets dropped into baby shang qinghua (airplane is sqh in this au but that’s not plot relevant yet)

- little fox shen yuan, still getting the hang of his powers and creating a human form, runs into shen jiu in the woods, realizes this “random” teenager looks a lot like he did in real life, and unconsciously shifts to look like him

- shen yuan and shen jiu become kind of friends (in that shen jiu feels like he needs to protect shen yuan because he thinks he’s naive and also thinks it’s funny when he’s a bitch and shen yuan also thinks that shen jiu is funny when he’s a bitch and that he should probably keep this kid from dying or screwing himself up with his clearly demonic cultivation too bad)

- shen yuan eventually figures out how to look fully human (prior to him and sj going to cang qiong mountain)

- sy and sj become disciples on qing jing together! how does shen yuan cultivate? well sj is the only one who knows he’s a demon but they manage to swipe a fox demon cultivation manual from qing jing peak’s library for him

- when the qing generation ascends shen yuan leaves cang qiong to go be a wandering cultivator and write a bestiary

(at this point you may be asking, where is zhuzhi-lang? he’s in the doodles, why hasn’t he shown up yet? fear not, he is coming)

- while traveling shen yuan decide that the mortal realm is too boring and there are far too many papapa plants there so he travels to the demon realm to record more beasts

- at this point tianlang-jun is still the emperor of the demon realm, and, through shenanigans probably, shen yuan manages to save zhuhai-lang from a rather dangerous plant that mimics normal demonic plants and gets introduced to the emperor

- it does not take long for shen yuan to realize that this is luo binghe’s father and decide, hey, maybe he can help this guy and hopefully get both of luo binghe’s parents to survive so he can have a kind of normal life without the trauma (he is still masquerading as a human at this point and there’s quite a bit of controversy about the demonic emperor taking advice from a human cultivator, linguang-jun later mocks mobei-jun for ‘following in the late emperor’s footsteps’ when he takes shang qinghua as his primary advisor)

- this plan does not work, shen yuan is exposed to the cultivation world as a demon and a traitor and gets his ass tossed into the endless abyss so he can’t warn zzl and tlj about the plot against them

- (shen jiu goes to see him before he gets sent in: “why’d you do it?” “i… i wanted to try and let them (su xiyan and tianlang-jun) be happy together…”)

- sy is stuck in the abyss making himself a little house and strong arming the various horrors down there into liking him

- cut to shen jiu, now shen qingqiu, extremely bitter about the fact that the only person he considered a friend betraying him the cultivation world, and seeing baby binghe who looks just like the guy his friend got tossed into the the abyss for and figures out that this must have been what shen yuan was trying to protect

- shen qingqiu is livid and takes it out on binghe

- yet another cut, we know what bingge’s childhood was like, and binghe’s gets dropped into the abyss (sqq thinks that it’s fitting he sends the beast to the same fate that trying to protect him doomed shen yuan to)

- binghe wanders the abyss, being miserable, for several years before he comes across… a house? the bamboo house from qing jing peak? is he hallucinating? but no, it’s not quite the same, it’s made with whatever freaky bamboo equivalent grows in the abyss and there’s a pen with a six-legged carnivorous horse around the side of it

- shen yuan built himself a version of the bamboo house because he really liked it and he helped build shen qingqiu’s bamboo house as a sort of present/congratulations for ascending to peak lord status and he wanted a comfortable place to relax where he’s less likely to be attacked by a beast

- binghe is very confused when he is enthusiastically greeted by a fox demon who looks like his scummy teacher but is rather quickly endeared and intrigued

- they bond, shen yuan helps binghe find xin mo and they get out of the abyss and into the demon realm together with shen yuan acting as an advisor for binghe similarly to how he did with tlj, with the condition that binghe helps him release tlj and zzl from their prison

- this is the main catalyst for them going to huan hua in this au (most people have forgotten what sy looks like or they were too young to remember his trial even happening, it wasn’t anything super public because publicity for the great sects is very important so they kept things very hush hush)

- shen yuan reunites with zhuzhi-lang and tianlang-jun! it takes them a while to figure out how to properly break them out but they do manage it!

- at some point in the demon realm shen yuan and shang qinghua run into each other and clock that the other person is a transmigrator pretty quickly (they both have a habit of muttering in chinglish during court and they hear each other and do the spider-man point meme)

- sqh and sy bond and binghe and mbj don’t exactly know if they should be jealous about it, they’re very close and seem to share some sort of strange dialect that only the two of them speak and spend a lot of time together?? (they’re arguing and maybe kissing a little bc… cumplane my loves)

- shen yuan eventually has the misfortune of running into liu qingge (who survives here because i love him and i think that sy would at least try to prevent his death because he found him endearing when they were disciples), while sy is delighted that his shidi is alive he’s less happy about having cheng luan pointed directly at his throat in a secluded alleyway when he was just trying to browse the market of a town he remembered being pleasant

- reuniting with lqg leads to reuniting with the rest of cang qiong (and getting yelled at for his incompetence by shen qingqiu before they make up)

- shen yuan has (just barely) convinced binghe that torture is not the answer to solving his trauma so shen qingqiu does not get water prisoned but they aren’t trusted alone in a room together for a good long time

- eventually this probably ends in shen yuan collecting a harem on accident (not that he’s very upset about it but still, he’s confused how he managed this)

- neither binghe nor shen qingqiu are particularly pleased about the harem thing but like… they love shen yuan and if it makes him happy they’ll put up with these other idiots (they totally don’t like some of the other harem members what are you talking about? there’s nothing going on there stop asking them about it)

[stardust-falling]

Did Yue Qi and Shen Jiu have surnames as slaves? I've seen people claim both. Obviously the narration called them Yue Qi and Shen Jiu, but I can't find any dialogue referring to them by full names until after the reunion, only "Qi-ge" and "Xiao Jiu".

Is there any reason to believe they wouldn't have surnames, or is the lack of dialogue mentioning them just due to the overall small amount of dialogue in the qijiu pre-CQMS era, with most of it being just directly between themselves qijiu?

So, I ended up doing some research into this. Pre-Qin, only nobles had surnames at all while slaves and commoners did not, but starting in the Warring States period, lower-class families also began to use surnames, and during the Qin Dynasty, most if not all families had them. Unlike MDZS, as far as I know, SVSSS doesn't have a distinctive time period in which it takes place so it's difficult to tell specifics, but I would probably headcanon it to take place after Qin Dynasty (somewhere between the Six Dynasties period and Song Dynasty, if I had to guess, with various influences from all across that time period and beyond... it's probably safe to assume that Airplane ended up mashing together all kinds of historical periods as influences).

In ancient times, slaves could be from noble families that were toppled, in which case I believe they'd still carry those surnames, or they might be given their master's surnames if they had achieved something notable, but I don't really think that this applies much to Shen Jiu and Yue Qi's situation.

(Also, I am not a historian so if anyone knows better please feel free to add on!)

These two not having surnames seems to be supported on the surface:

"When he was twelve years old, he was but a slave my family had purchased from traveling child traffickers. As the ninth child in that band, he was called Xiao-Jiu." (7 Seas, Ch. 6)

And additionally, when Shen Jiu is writing characters, he only knows "Qi" and "Jiu" without any surnames.

However, there is also the fact that Qiu Haitang calls him by his full name when she meets him:

Then there came a woman’s sweetly charming voice. “Shen Jiu… Are you Shen Jiu?” ... "No wonder I searched for so many years but still never found you again. I see, you’d already flown to the summit and become the aloof and lofty master of Qing Jing Peak. Ha ha, how splendid!" (7 Seas, Ch. 6)

Now... there are a few ways you could think of this. Does she address him this way because he did have a surname before? Or has she heard that the Qing Jing peak lord is surnamed Shen and calls him accordingly?

And then I went back to reread for this... and found out that Shen Jiu is called by his full name even before coming to the Qiu household:

So, [Shiwu] steeled himself and put on a brave face to say, “Shen Jiu, don’t think you can just throw your weight around. You don’t own this street. What gives you the right to tell us we can’t stay?!” (7 Seas, Ch. 24)

Which makes it very likely that the two had surnames-- and probably that at least one through nine did as well. Whether those that come after did is less clear, since they would already have two-character names, but that isn't particularly important. Now... where did they get them?

Either from families that sold them off, or it could be geographical, like taking a character from the name of the region or city they were purchased in. Maybe it was just randomly assigned. Whichever you end up going with, Shen Jiu was surnamed "Shen" from some point before we meet him in the flashback extra, and it's reasonable to assume that Yue Qi also had his surname.

Anyway, I feel like there's a decent bit up for interpretation, but they almost certainly received their surnames at some point during childhood, rather than at Cang Qiong Mountain.

[lizhly-writes]

svsss fic masterpost

A list of all my SVSSS writing, for ease of navigation.

Last updated: May 22, 2025

remedies for ruin (#remedies for ruin, chrono): a universe based on the concept that Cang Qiong Peak Lords traditionally marry each other for sect unity. Contains three branches -- the original (sqh/yqy), the battle is the cure (lqg/sqh), and all things are poison (og!sqh/yqy).

All snippets viewable in this masterpost.

zero is my favorite number (#shen jiu luo binghe roleswap, chrono): Luo Ling is the slave-turned Peak Lord, and Shen Jiuyu is his most hated disciple -- not that Luo Qingling would ever let anyone know it.

the summary?

zero and seven

on the sale of luo ling: 1 2 3 4

the aftermath of a reunion

you have my face: 1

nine days of rain

the master accepts a new disciple

therapy: a wondrous innovation of the modern era! (#the therapy fic, chrono) (mbj/sqh): In a past life, Mobei-jun killed Shang Qinghua. In modern-day China, Shang Houhua and Mobei Yi deal with this revelation in couple's counseling.

workplace power dynamics: 1 2

what if we consider therapy: 1 2

luo bingmei's backstory!

have you considered writing your feelings

the tie-in: everything is fine (#everything is fine???, chrono): 1 2 3 4 5 6 dreams

help! i've transmigrated into my own stallion novel as the protagonist??? (tag, chrono): Airplane-Shooting-Towards-The-Sky is reborn as Luo Binghe!

transmigrator blues

once upon a time: 1 2

schrodinger's son (#schrodinger's son, chrono): Shang Qinghua gets amnesia and while desperately trying to figure out what's happening, makes the assumption that Luo Binghe is his son.

hey so i have amnesia???

how do i have a son: 1 2

who the fuck poisoned me: 1 2 3

whoops got caught

mu qingfang's terrible romcom (#mu qingfang's terrible romcom, chrono) (mqf/sqh): Mu Qingfang accidentally gives Shang Qinghua a love confession. This is his attempt to take it back before Shang Qinghua realizes it's a love confession.

a totally normal thing to be happening

it's no burden taking care of you

i'll pay you back!

mission prep: 1 2 3 4 5

welp time to run: 1 2 3

conundrums of travel

the object permanence of doppelgangers (#svsss: fake twin au, chrono): Disciple Shen Jiu wakes up with a doppelganger in his bed. Through System error, his face and backstory have been copy-pasted to another person. Shen Yuan is having a terrible time.

our happy daily life

what kind of name is shen shi

one offs:

gongxi xiao read scum villain

a-hua and the system: 1 2

liz's terrible gameshow

sqh and father figures

a conversation between head disciples

the dose makes the poison

recursive fiction:

sqh 12/12 achievement

hallmaster jiang and disciple wu

the genderswapped sqh/qqq moment

crossovers

loyalty, and the holder thereof (mdzs) (#loyalty and the holder thereof, chrono): Jiang Fengmian brings back a starving orphan from the streets, and his name is Yue Qi.

a new disciple

the young heroes

you look just like him

plucking fish eyes (mdzs) (mxy/og sqh): Jin Guangshan calls in a favor from Peak Lord Shang Qinghua and sends his son to Cang Qiong. Mo Xuanyu grows up as an An Ding disciple. 1

grandmaster of something-or-the-other (mdzs) (#grandmaster of something-or-the-other, chrono): Airplane-Shooting-Towards-The-Sky is reborn as the only child of Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren.

what a weird fucking kid

it's okay, you're just like me

sect leader jiang!: 1 2

two roads diverged in a yellow wood (mdzs) (#two roads diverged in a yellow wood, chrono) (jgy/sqh?): Shang Hua and Meng Yao grow up in the same brothel.

brothel kids: 1 2

i'm off to find my destiny: 3

if i live to be a hurricane (mdzs) (jc/sj) (#if i live to be a hurricane, chrono): In which Shen Jiu becomes inadvertently becomes a Jiang disciple.

All snippets viewable in this masterpost.

in this lifetime and the last (mdzs) (coming at some point)

the concept

THAT ONE SJW x TLJ CRACK SHIP (solo leveling): 1 2

li jianyu is a stupid name (the good place): 1

[takeholdofthesun]

More MoShang!

Posting another link, this time to chapter 4 of the MoShang fic that I'm playing around with.

You can find the AO3 fic HERE!

And once again, I'm also posting below the cut. There may be some errors as I was half asleep as I both wrote this and posted. Tried to correct a few, but you know how self-editing goes,

Once Mobei-jun closed the portal, and Shang Qinghua confirmed he was alone, his hand stopped clutching the broken hairpin he was desperately hiding from his king. Its jade body warmed by his sweating palm, and overall nervous composure. How on earth had he managed to keep it hidden? Mobei-Jun was staring right at it! If he didn’t swoop in, using the robes as an excuse….

Well, Qinghua didn’t like to dwell on what ifs. Don’t look a gifted horse in the mouth!

He collapsed back into his desk chair and slowly brought the crystal body of the hairpin to observe. Something he had lost himself in for most of the morning. He originally found the broken piece while brushing his hair. How it had become tangled to that point, Qinghua wasn’t sure, but it kept him up all night, replaying the events of the evening in his mental theater.

Shang Qinghua thought he was pretty good at muting himself for the sake of his role as an advisor and a peak lord. So, when Mobei-Jun first reached into his robe, extended his hand, and revealed the jeweled hairpin, Qinghua did not let the bees in his chest free. They rattled the cage a bit, but he quickly smoked them out. He didn’t dwell on the style of the pin, the color, or the bedazzlements. He just put his hair up in a way that he hoped Mobei-Jun would accept. Even when Mobei-Jun looked pleased, Shang Qinghua remained a stone wall.

But he really was looking forward to looking at that pin later when there was free time. He wanted to admire the gift he received for what he assumed was Mobei-Jun’s way of appreciating how devoted Shang Qinghua had been to him as an advisor. A way of showing that he was a valued servant of the Mobei clan, as evidenced by the robes he had been directed to wear. Evidence of a job well done.

Then Mobei-Jun shattered it. At that time, Qinghua was certain it was completely destroyed, but upon finding the remaining piece in his hair, it seemed like only the decorative head of the pin was ruined. So, Qinghua spent all night and all morning trying to remember what the whole thing looked like.

Because it was nice. It was the nicest thing he had ever received.

Shang Qinghua was worried about how Mobei-Jun would respond if he saw what remained of it.

He twisted the crystal end of the pin, watching the light dance off of it. Then, with a heavy sigh, he exchanged the pin for a letter he had been reviewing off and on for the past hour. The paper was wrinkled because he had clutched it tightly along with the broken pin when he rushed over to Mobei-Jun’s study earlier. After smoothing it out again, his eyes stuck to the same words they always did. Another sickening feeling rolled around in his stomach.

“Cang Qiong….” His hands ran through his hair. He absolutely hated receiving a summons, but at least Yue Qingyuan gave him warning and ample time, unlike someone he knew. Qinghua couldn’t throw stones though, because Yue Qingyuan had given him ample time to find a way back to the sect, and it was Qinghua who had delayed fulfilling the summons request.

He could have used a transportation technique if he had focused on stock piling qi, but Qinghua would rather hold on to that one for potentially troublesome situations, and didn’t want to burn out the qi he had already accumulated into the talisman for the spell. His other option would be to travel the old-fashioned way to one of the weaker parts of the barrier between the realms. He could take his flying sword and make the trip in a couple of days.

Which meant he would need to leave now just to account for any potential roadblocks.

His only other option would be to ask Mobei-Jun for a portal. It’s not like he hadn’t done so before, but he never liked it. Portaling was a very uncomfortable feeling, and he really didn’t want to be kicked out onto the dirt in front of the entirety of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. Again.

So, his options were to abscond tonight or beg Mobei-Jun for help. Either way, it was his fault for putting it off for so long, so he should just accept the consequences and be done with it. It’s like he could hear his martial brothers’ biting rebukes already.

On second thought, Shang Qinghua was pretty sure he had more time to think about it. He could deliberate a little on this one. He was on top of everything else all the time, so what if, just this once….

Another knock sounded at the door. Qinghua shoved the letter and the broken pin into a drawer as one of his newly appointed helpers stepped in. Squeaky Floor Boards was the young demon boy tasked with checking in on Qinghua every few hours. Or at least that’s what it felt like. Although this kid was just supposed to be an extra hand to offset his workload, he was very ambitious. Qinghua wasn’t sure whether to count it as a good or bad thing.

When Mobei-Jun proposed assigning a helper for him, it was with the condition that anyone in that position must be approved by Shang Qinghua himself. And since Qinghua had a bit of a vendetta against most of the other demons around the ice palace due to… prior grievances, that didn’t leave him many options. Unfortunately, this little demon reminded him of some of his poor An Ding disciples, so it seemed sentiment won over in the decision-making process.

But since his appointment as an aid, the kid made it extremely difficult to get some real alone time. Earlier, when Qinghua had flung open the doors to the room and found Mobei-Jun, he had actually been expecting this kid.

“Advisor Shang.” The bow greeted Qinghua in a familiarly tired and dead like way. Ah, he would never escape An Ding Peak would he? It was going to follow him forever!

“Yes.” No matter what, Shang Qinghua could never bring himself to say any of the demon names he learned out loud. No, that was not him ignoring the poor naming conventions of the demon world. It wasn't his fault, he didn't name this kid! “What is it?”

“I finished cataloguing all the correspondence for the past year.”

“Really?” Qinghua kept a cool face. He knew two things: Squeaky Floor Boards did not, in fact, do what he was asked to do (and if he did, it was done incorrectly), and that this task was a waste of time. He just needed to get the kid off his back. Maybe a helper would have been useful to Qinghua before Mobei-Jun’s ascension, but he was the absolute slowest he’s ever been.

Which is why he could spend so much time staring at a broken piece of jewelry for the past evening and morning.

“Yes. I am ready for my next task.”

Oh dear, what to give him? With the work he was still tasked with, Qinghua could not delegate it to a child, much less a demon. There was a little table off to the side where he could shun him to book learning for now.

“I’ll review your work.” Like hell he would waste time with that. “For right now, just work on your studies over there. I’ll call you when I need you.”

The boy nodded and sat in the corner to study whatever basic reading and writing Qinghua had given him. Many of the An Ding disciples came from common backgrounds, so teaching the basics was a standard long implemented on Cang Qiong. He was basically treating this demon kid as if he was one of his An Ding disciples. He should start making the kid call him Master at this point.

Qinghua quickly became annoyed with the very vocal way his studious “disciple” was learning. So, he commanded the kid to stay put and left the room. The Northern Palace was busy, very busy. Why hadn’t this master, who shut himself inside his study all night and morning, noticed this much movement in an otherwise quiet and almost desolate seeming building?

Oh. Right.

Qinghua wandered through the palace mindlessly, greeting every servant he came across, until he noticed that the busy atmosphere seemed to stem from a particular hall. Following the noise, Shang Qinghua found himself near the open door of a drawing room. 

It was strangely lively, wasn’t it? Was it a birthday or something? Did demons have those kinds of customs? Qinghua couldn’t remember, so he peered inside the room to check. Immediately his stomach flipped. He wanted to throw up all over. 

Why were there demons here?

Not Northern clan affiliated demons?

Are these the Banquet guests from last night? What the –?

“Is that the esteemed Advisor!”

“Ah! Finally come out of your seclusion to greet us?”

“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly.”

Before Shang Qinghua could retreat, he was surrounded by luridly dressed demons. Their heightened senses must have noticed him as he was walking up. But how exactly? Did Qinghua smell funny? Step too heavily? He would need to fix that.

They overwhelmed him quickly, dragging him into the room to sit down. He did not recognize any faces, save for the two lizard people, who seemed to be excusing themselves to be alone off to the side. Everyone else was trying to smother him, it felt like. Were these all servants, and if so, did that mean their masters were still here as well?

Oh, how he really hoped not. 

Why the hell was anyone still here? Who did he need to strangle for this severe lapse in oversight?

“You’re alone?” 

Shang Qinghua looked up at the voice. A particularly dandy looking demon with dark skin and hair looked lazily towards him with a pitiless gaze. Despite the mostly human features, there was a strange shallowness to his eyes in both color and reflection. It was creepy. It made Qinghua want to curl up in a ball. It reminded him of cowering in dark corners to avoid the Northern clan demons when he first came to serve Mobei-Jun. 

Although Shang Qinghua knew better than to show fear, he felt the tingle run down his spine and his body grow cold. 

“I should be with someone?” Qinghua answered as coolly as possible.

“Rumor says that the Northern King is never seen without his advisor.” The dark eyed demon said. Qinghua took a moment to take in his demon’s black robes. He could potentially use that for further identifying who this servant belongs to. 

“There has to be times where I’m not immediately at my King’s side, otherwise nothing might ever get done.” 

One of the servants off to the side laughed, and immediately covered it up with a hushed conversation with the demon next to her.

“Does this advisor have many tasks? How strange.” 

Strange? What was so strange about it? What could possibly be strange about a demon lord putting untold amounts of trust into a human cultivator, relying solely on said cultivator to complete monumental tasks for him, and requiring that cultivator to attend every gathering with him? It was necessary!

“I apologize if I do not meet the expectations of the rumors you've heard.” Qinghua forced himself to straighten his back a bit under the narrowing gaze of the black robed demon. He was in Mobei-Jun’s Palace, and Shang Qinghua needed to uphold an air of superiority working under such a high-ranking demon lord, no matter how nauseous he felt.

“Advisor Shang,“ a white robed demon leaned over to grab his attention. It was less humanoid and almost the antithesis of the black robed demon in every way. We didn’t get to meet last night, since you had to leave the Winter Fest Banquet so quickly. It was quite disappointing.” 

Qinghua almost wasn’t sure how to answer at first. He wanted to avoid thinking about that night forever if possible.  “Ah, I’m sorry that we could not meet at that time.”

“You shouldn’t be. You needed to attend to Lord Mobei’s needs. My own disappointment is gone now that we can meet.” 

Qinghua was grateful to the white clothed demon for not prying and took the chance to try and close the conversation. He really had no desire to be in that room any longer. Besides, he needed to figure out why there were still guests here, and who screwed up their departures back to their own lands. “Yes, well, I’m sure that you have also experienced something similar. I’m grateful for your understanding.”

“I can’t say that I have. Lord Mobei seems to ask much more of his advisors than my master would ever ask of me.” the white demon smiled. It was supported by a few others around the room. The black robed demon smiled as well. 

“Lord Mobei has some strict requirements for his advisors, doesn't he? Is that why there are so few despite the size of the Northern clan’s territory?” someone asked with an almost amused tone.

Qinghua pressed his lips together, but didn’t respond. Were these demons trying to prove some point? Were they proud to not have their Lord’s and Master’s trust? Were they trying to get information out of him? None of them seemed all that smart, aside from the black robed demon. But it was more discomfort than an actual worry that Qinghua felt towards the yin and Yang like demons in front of him. 

“All this talk is reminding me of what I need to do. I really should be going.”  Qinghua shuffled himself to his feet, and anyone else that was sitting quickly followed. “I hope we can meet again in the near future, but for now, there is some work I need to get done.”

“Really?”

“How unfortunate!”

“Doesn’t the Northern tribe break from all work during this time of the year?”

Damn it, Qinghua cursed himself. Who’s the one that just outed him?

“You can’t halt everything completely.” Qinghua smiled, he figured that it had to be true. All work? So, what, the palace maids just go home for the month? Ridiculous!

Then again, Movie-Jun had been pretty clear at the banquet that there would be no court work or business during this time. That was like ninety percent of his job! Either way, his fib seemed to placate them, and he was able to just barely escape the room before an arm blocked his path. Following it back to the body, Qinghua identified one of the lizard demons. 

“Where is your decorative hair pin?” 

All at once Shang Qinghua felt indignant. What did it matter to this guy? 

“Why do you ask?”

The demon did not falter. 

“Our Mistress assisted you.”

Yeah? Well, your mistress also got it destroyed. That display pissed off Mobei-Jun so much that he could not even stand to see the diligent servant he had gifted it to wear it any longer. Because of that damn performance, now it was gone forever!

“It is tucked away for now.” 

Not technically a lie, but the Lizard demon stopped blocking his way and Qinghua was free to proceed forward. His first stop, Mobie-Jun’s office. Actually, it felt strange to go see Mobei-Jun after their last altercation only an hour ago or so, but Qinghua should have gotten used to that kind of situation by now. 

He checked the study. Mobe-Jun was not there. He checked the throne room. Mobei-Jun was not there either. Dining hall? No luck. Lastly, and nervously, he checked Mobei-Jun’s private rooms. No answer.

It seemed his king had vanished. And Shang Qinghua was left behind with a handful of nosey and off-putting guests.