[mayvnwrites]

I couldn't stand the digital version and quickly sketched up what I actually picture Huan Hua Grandmaster SY to look like.

I thought drawing digitally would make things easier because of the white hair and beard, but... I don't know. As soon as the stylus touches the screen, I feel like I lose a dimension and can't give any proper volume to what I want to draw.

I'll leave the other version for the colors, at least.

[mayvnwrites]

Huan Hua Grandmaster SY, because I have to get him out of my head. Please gilf sy, I have other things to do this week.

[mayvnwrites]

And because SY is an unreliable narrator, this Huan Hua au but SJ's POV.

"I'm sorry, the Grandmaster is away on another business. As per regulations, this matter does not need his attention, so head over to Head Curator Wang in the artifacts treasury to register your request."

SJ smiled a warm, gentle smile as he sent the sect member on his way until the man was out of sight, then immediately scowled.

Another pest trying to pester the Grandmaster! Even though Shizun clearly did "delegation" in order to reduce the amount of work the sect's leader had to do, as well as streamlining sect matters and instilling responsibility in all sect members.

Despite the fact that Grandmaster wanted to take things easy and be left alone, there are always going to be people trying meet with Shizun... and it's not like SJ didn't know why.

Heading into the back courtyard, SJ found Shizun tending the garden as usual. He wasn't sure what Shizun enjoyed about gardening all the time but ... side-eyeing the extremely rare plants Shizun had somehow managed to cultivate despite their historic impossible-to-cultivate reputation, he could only sigh.

As long as Shizun was having fun...

Rounding the all-seeing creeper vines and frost honey sky lotus, SJ finally caught sight of his Shizun, the Sect Master Grandmaster of Huan Hua Palace. (Shizun kept wanting to step back from the position and joked he was more like the sect's grandfather, not the sect leader, but please. With Shizun's leadership, who would accept his retirement any time soon? They just started calling him Grandmaster instead. Anyway, it was better than the "Palace Master" Shizun's failure of a disciple wanted to be called.)

Despite his age, Shen Shizun was still tall and graceful. He might have a mature face, but it was still smooth and elastic unlike many ancestor cultivators decades younger than him.

The beard was trimmed short, unlike the long beards like all the other cultivators his age, and it was neat and tidy, unlike all the greasy and unkempt rogues and bastards SJ had seen in his time on the streets.

That beard and the long white hair half pulled back in a topknot combined with Shizun's broad shoulders and narrow waist had seduced far too many people. SJ couldn't help glaring at his shizun.

Did he know how many people he had to chase away daily?! No! Of course his shizun didn't, he NEVER notices their advances!

Even though the man was the smartest, craftiest person alive, Grandmaster Shen couldn't tell someone was interested in him even if they bluntly told him! And many people had!

Either Shizun wanted to be an ascetic, or no one had caught his eye. Didn't matter - SJ would chase them off until his shizun indicated differently.

After everything he'd done for Huan pHua, Shizun deserved to not be bothered by unwanted advances!

Shizun revealed all the conspiracies, punished all evil-minded sect members, and redid the entire sect's authority system to prevent the terrible things from happening again.

Normally SJ would scoff at the naivety of believing one could set up a sect to avoid corruption, but seeing how Shizun did it by utilizing people's natural suspicion and eagerness to point fingers while mitigating the overeager by clearly defining the rules and punishments for false accusations ... SJ knew Shen Shizun wasn't someone who didn't understand reality and the darkness within people.

After all, Shizun never pretended that material wealth wasn't important like some other sects that liked to act like they were above material needs.

When SJ asked his shizun about it, Shen Shizun just chuckled.

"Whether it's money, resources, or power, they are all things that can be used. Some sects like to scoff at us and call us moneygrubbers, but how many times do they come asking to borrow money when they come against a problem they can't just fight? And in the first place, can we truly be a righteous sect if every solution is to subdue the opponent? Would we not just be tyrants?"

"Isn't that what it means to be the strongest?"

Shizun chuckled again. "Is "the strongest" truly the best thing? Let me tell you, Xiao Jiu, the only constant in life is human dissatisfaction, and all jealous eyes will target anyone who act oppressively. It's far better to pretend to be mediocre and let everyone think you're doing them favors. Besides, they're so righteous, they wouldn't let you do them favors without having to pay you back."

That sly smile and glint in his shizun's eyes... Although Grandmaster Shen was widely known as a wise and benevolent leader, SJ was fully aware that his shizun secretly devious and crafty. And SJ fully approved of it.

It was strange. Supposedly the Grandmaster had been cowardly and overly suspicious for many years before that sad excuse of a failure took over, but his personality now was nothing at all like the Sect Master in the memories of the elders.

The most common theory was that Grandmaster had been pretending to be useless in order to catch his head disciple and make an example of him... but that didn't feel right to SJ.

With everything he knew about the Grandmaster, SJ knew that Shen Shizun was good at reading people (except in romance) and swift and decisive in nipping trouble in the bud.

Not only would Shizun have put a swift end to the man's ambitions, he wouldn't have accepted that failure as head disciple in the first place!

In SJ's opinion, that poisoning did something to Shen Shizun. Either Shen Shizun had been slowly poisoned the entire time, leading to his strange personality, or that was truly Shen Shizun's previous personality. Either way, the final poisoning most likely caused Shen Shizun to undergo a breakthrough in both mentality and cultivation.

How else can you explain the massive power increase and completely different temperament otherwise?

Either way, SJ appreciated the change, even if he hated how it happened.

It's just, with all Shizun's breakthroughs (at his age!), his appearance grew sturdier and more vibrant while his firm and dependable temperament deepened and became even more attractive, drawing all sorts of bees and butterflies wanting to be the old man's cultivation partner!

Unaware of SJ's thoughts, SY just cheerfully waved and said, "Xiao Jiu. Is there something the matter?"

Facing Shen Shizun's warm smile, SJ deflated.

Forget it... as long as Shizun's happy.

"Hm? Is that Shen Jiu? Let this old man see how you're doing~"

... This was another thing SJ didn't understand. Shizun's weird friend, who came to talk about vulgar books and bicker about pointless things and took him out on stupid "adventures" that always went strange, so different from how Shizun normally was... but maybe that's the point.

Maybe Shizun never wanted to be so serious and have to overhaul the sect. Maybe he just wanted the freedom to tend his garden, chat over tea with some foolish friends, and travel around without any responsibilities.

SJ resolved to hurry in his studies and growth in order to take over Huan Hua soon, in order to let his shizun retire sooner.

[mayvnwrites]

On his deathbed in his old age, SY transmigrates into a cultivator whose last wish was to get revenge on the $7;&!# who poisoned him!

SY: ... Okay.

Honestly, he had been perfectly content with peacefully going out after living a fulfilling life (although he never got rid of his status as Shen Patriarch thanks to his useless brothers who refused to get involved in the family business), but a second chance at life is good too... Wait, this is PIDW?!

... He takes it back.

After recovering (and learning how to use) his cultivation (for the first time), SY finally leaves the cave by blasting open the saboteur's cave-in job and strolls out to see where he was and what the situation really was. (He didn't trust the manic dying man fully.)

"S-sect Master?!? You didn't ascend?!"

Hm... so he's a the leader of a sect. It will make things difficult to investigate incognito.

SY put a finger to his lips and winked at the disciple who found him.

"There's a reason, so keep it secret for me," he whispered, startling the disciple even further. Perhaps this was all a hallucination...

Leaving the disciple who was questioning life behind him, SY trimmed his beard short and used a disguise technique to change his hair and beard from white to black before continuing on his way.

After a thorough investigation, SY is thoroughly disgusted with what he found. The whole sect was riddled with corruption, and his own damn head disciple, now the "sect master," was the worst of the bunch.

His many years as the Shen CEO had honed his abilities at reading people, and his former head disciple had the scummiest look to him... honestly, how did the former owner of this body not see the hostile takeover assassination attempt coming?

Gathering together some of the most virtuous elders, SY revealed the current "sect master's" ugly deeds, including (but not limited to) SY's "own" assassination, bribing witnesses and forging evidence to falsely incarcerate prisoners, illegal acquisitions of treasures and secret manuals that often included manufacturing "accidents" for the original owners, and lusting after his head disciple.

SY could only sigh and shake his head.

"If you had openly requested the right to pursue her and had mutual affections, this would not be a count against you," SY said. He had allowed many a department romance despite the board's concerns back in the day. "However, to abuse your position and power over her to take advantage and manipulate her... this is not love but greed!"

With all the evil deeds aired out for the world to see, SY personally reached out and broke his former head disciple's cultivation.

What, just imprison or exile this bastard? No way. This wasn't a man who would take his punishment quietly.

SY was a retired old man! Why leave a thorn in his side? Just to have drama in the future?

Besides, there was going to be a lot of reformation work needed to scrub the "muck" out of Huan Hua!

Part of SY wondered if this would be a problem in the future. After all, Luo Binghe would take over this sect... what if part of his journey was to eradicate the corruption in Huan Hua?

... Oh well. Now that SY knew how terrible this sect was, he couldn't pretend not see it and leave this liability and disaster waiting to happen. LBH can just take over a "clean" sect. It'll save him some time.

With terrifying efficiency from his decades as the Shen Corporation's CEO, SY purged and restructured Huan Hua.

Yeah, some of the mess was the fault of the original owner of this body, but SY just blamed everything on the former "sect master" acting without permission. Anyway, he didn't do it.

Everyone had audits and multiple checks and balances to insure there wouldn't be as much power abuse and embezzlement. Everyone had to pull their weight, and ill-gotten goods were confiscated and the victims compensated.

What did a cultivation sect want with all this mortal money and goods anyway?! And what was with the slves?! They're a cultivation sect, where social classes didn't matter once you took the oath for "departing" from the mortal world!

The world's setting was unfortunate enough to include slvery, and it would be difficult to correct since cultivators shouldn't meddle in mortal affairs, but their sect didn't have to participate! Hell, it was only the now crippled former sect master the slvers dealt with, so wtf?! And what was he doing with them?! Lord knows there aren't any in the sect... so what was he doing with them?! SY decided to investigate himself.

Looks like the former sect master was just a middleman for some nobles ... the details were disgusting enough that SY blinded the slver ringleader out of spite. (Ostensibly for "corrupting" his former head disciple, but let's be real, the guy was so bad he didn't need help.)

On his way back to the sect, SY spots some asshole nobles running wild on horseback through the streets, nearly killing people, before a few street urchins got entangled.

One of them threw qi... SY narrowed his eyes.

After learning what he learned at the slvers about some nobles' preferences... He saw the noble lock on to the boy.

... Nope.

SY never had children himself - no one was romantically interested in him to begin with (author's note: haha.) - but his siblings had kids and he had lots of fun being the cool uncle. He was going to stab a bitch if that noble got his hands on that kid.

Shrinking a thousand leagues into one step, SY suddenly appeared in front of the boy, preventing the noble's guards from touching him.

Although he ignored the nobles' side, looking solely at the boy, SY allowed his aura to expand, stifling and cowing the noble and his guards to silence.

Even the ill-tempered horse stood silently and shivered in his presence.

"Let me see your hand," SY said gently and took the boy's hand to poke and prod at his meridians.

"Grandmaster!" SY's entourage quickly caught up with him, causing the noble and his guards to be even more alarmed.

SY just smiled warmly at them.

"Look," he said. "I found a good seedling."

"Grandmaster..." SY's assistant sighed. "Alright, let's take him in."

"W-wait!"

SY wanted to click his tongue. SOME people just don't have any survival instincts.

The noble behind them reached out. "That is ..."

SY's assistant did click her tongue and demanded, "Who are you to question the Grandmaster of Husn Hua?! You are not this boy's guardian or master, what right do you have to prevent our Grandmaster from taking him as a disciple?!"

The noble went pale and nearly fainted.

"Now now," SY chuckled. "He did see the boy first, I suppose. But I wager that our sect will cultivate this little seedling better than a noble's house would, so please excuse my impropriety in taking him away. Unless ... you had... other plans?"

The noble quaked under the increased pressure Huan Hua's Grandmaster exerted. He was sure the Grandmaster knew his evil thoughts... but then the Grandmaster withdrew the pressure and smiled pleasantly.

"Fret not, I will not let you go empty handed. Thank you for finding this good seedling for me."

! A cultivator tool for almost nothing! Who cares about some brat?! The noble party departed with great joy despite their former fear.

SY's assistant frowned disapprovingly.

"Grandmaster," she complained, "after what we learned, we know he had no good intentions. Why would you reward him?!"

A sly, fox-like smile flitted across the Grandmaster's face.

"The tool isn't worth much, nor is it something he could use to overthrow the Emperor with. But tell me. What do you think is more dangerous, owning a powerful tool or not being strong enough to own a powerful tool?“

The assistant gaped. "You mean..."

"The ambition in those eyes is hard to hide, and a household that raised him to have such a temperament can only have a mire of enemies just waiting to drag them down. Whether they overestimate themselves and use it to attack others or others attack them to obtain it..." the Grandmaster trailed off before he chuckled. "Well, when you hear of their destruction, go get it back. We only permitted the Qius to have it, after all."

SJ stared at this bearded, white-haired man, eyes wide.

He had never respected an adult more in his life.

"Now then, let's get going and learn about this new little disciple on the way..." the Grandmaster said.

SJ snapped out of his confused daze. "W-wait-! Um... can ... can Qi-ge come too...?"

SY paused, noticing the other boy who had gotten hurt in the earlier scuffle

Ignoring his assistant's eyeroll, SY tsked tsked and picked the poor boy up, inspecting the scrapes and bruises.

SY suddenly paused and looked at his assistant. "Don't tell me I'm picking up every stray cat and dog. You take a look at his meridians too."

This other boy hadn't had his qi awakening yet, but his meridians were prime cultivation material!

The assistant gaped, then looked at one boy and then the next.

"When did cultivation monsters become as easy to pick up as cabbages on the side of the road?!" she squawked

Under SY, Huan Hua became a powerhouse among powerhouses. They were virtuous, upheld justice, and minded their impact on their surroundings. Their reputation soared with leaps and bounds.

SY's only regret was that his former head disciple's head disciple chose to withdraw from the sect.

Dammit! He had been preparing her to take over so he could retire!!! This is his brothers and the CEO position all over again!!!!

"... Why?" SY asked, preparing himself to rebut anything she said.

"... I wish to marry a demon."

... Okay, he didn't have an answer for that.

Fine, fine, have fun... at least Shen Jiu was shaping up to be promising. We'll just have to pass over SXY...

Before SXY left, she paused. "You... don't actually have any objections?"

SY could only sigh. "What good would they do? Demons who aren't automatically hostile are already so rare anyway. Just remember you have a home to come back to if you need it."

---

Long story short, when XF transmigrates over after dying of his old age, he finds that Cang Qiong has been usurped as the number one sect by Huan Hua, the OPM and LPM don't exist, Shen Jiu is Huan Hua's sect master with Yue Qi as Huan Hua's head enforcer, SXY is Empress Xi Yan of the demon realm (to disguise herself and avoid troubling Huan Hua), and LBH doesn't exist as LBH.

Oh, and his favorite hater-turned patron-turned good buddy, whose death he mourned for several years before his own, is happily tending the vegetable garden rare herbs and plants in Huan Hua's back courtyard just like he had in retirement in the modern world. After royally screwing up every inch of the plot!!!

Lots of yelling and bickering ensue.

[mayvnwrites]

Still thinking about this idea, because gilf SY is now living in my head.

Before he died of natural causes at 85, SY was a beloved uncle of all his siblings' kids and a beloved grand-uncle of all THEIR kids. He was a patient and diligent teacher for all levels of schooling, let them come run rampant in the CEO office whenever they wanted, and was the cool uncle the kids were willing to talk to - even about things they wouldn't tell their parents.

Of course he wasn't perfect with them (he doted on and spoiled them too much at first), but after so many years and so many kids, SY had learned how to gently guide the indecisive and when to be stern and scold them for indiscretions.

He was also the main mentor for all the Shen heirs since his brothers refused to get involved in the family business, and he... somehow? Became the Shen Patriarch?? The hell??!

This status amplifies SY's wifebeam and mutates it, especially when he gets to dilf age. He's just the Most Desirable Bachelor Ever because people now want to wife and/or BE the wife of SY. They ain't picky, they just want this unc.

If you ask SY, though, he never realized. At the end of his life, he tells his meimei that he's a little regretful that no one was ever interested in him, and she's so flabbergasted she just barely manages not to trip and/or dislocate her hip.

And yeah, SY was a closet otaku his entire life, but it does fade a little as he ages and starts taking on more responsibilities... But what doesn't fade is the regrets about how PIDW could have been good!!!

He continues to harass Airplane during the duration of PIDW, but slowly, as they both mature, they develop a begrudging comradery to a point where Airplane confesses his life troubles. SY "lends" Airplane money to get through his rough points - not out of pity, he's quick to point out, but out of hope that there will never be another PIDW! They never meet, but joke around about XF being SY's sponsored renaissance painter and SY being XF's daddy longlegs.

But yeah. Wise(r), calmer, older mentor SY who still has all his oblivious sexual identity issues exacerbated because, who wants a crusty old grandpa? (All his suitors are pulling their hair out in frustration.)

Yeah, sure he transmigrates into a cultivator, but he's still a bit older in appearance than the other eternally young cultivators. Looking 35-40 is practically ancient!!! And he's still 85 on the inside, so really, completely undesirable.

SY does his duties and runs his department with so much efficiency that this random court minister catches Bingge's eye, and the Demon Emperor comes barreling down to see him, desperate to keep his empire and harem from imploding.

He almost tears SY limb from limb when the minister dared to imply that HE was at all part of the problem ... but the CEO grandpa stare SY levels at him spooks him so much that he panics and "dares" this lowly minister to do better. (And why did that stare make him feel all weird inside?)

SY starts by thinning out the harem. Not by having the wives divorce, good heavens no, that would reflect terribly on and only harm the women in this world, but ah... they had too many wives and not enough competent ministers, so... transfer personnel from one "department" to the other!

He starts with SHL. She is desperate for freedom, but is also unwilling to go empty handed after everything Bingge put her through. With Bingge's seal, SY proposes that in exchange for being the general of the elite troupes in the main army and the freedom to bed whoever she wishes, she must forfeit all her children's rights to the Emperor's throne.

SHL gets it; if she's allowed to sleep around then not all her children will be Bingge's. SY is just protecting the Emperor from accidentally accepting a false heir... but she hates it. What about her son that IS Bingge's?!

SY just smiles and says, "In exchange, as long as you remain loyal to the Emperor, the general position and the fiefdom that comes with it will all be yours and your heirs."

This causes SHL to pause. Yeah, having a son be emperor is great and all, but... Bingge isn't going down anytime soon and there are SO many other kids ... and the thought of her heir under her name fills her with excitement.

When Bingge catches wind of this he's upset, but SY just smiles in a gentle, grandfatherly way and asks, "Are you lacking in wives or competent generals?"

Ignoring the twinge in the pit of his stomach from that smile, Bingge snarls, "But she's MY wife! How can she be allowed to make decisions for herself?!"

SY raises an eyebrow. "Then you wish for generals who cannot command? Even if she is your wife, she must be allowed autonomy to grow your army's elites into the world's strongest. Would soldiers listen to someone who must ask for permission at every turn?"

"B-but sleeping with other men?" Binghe pouts.

SY just looks at him coolly, and for some reason, Bingge feels deeply ashamed despite not knowing why.

No, he does know.

He sleeps in other women's beds all the time, but due to the size of the harem he hasn't visited SHL's in years...

"Her concubines must be approved by her husband, of course," SY says, "but it seems unreasonable to approve of every medical procedure or drunken fling."

"What if someone uses her to get to me?" Bingge protests.

"Then she wouldn't be a very good general to trust, would she?" SY says, and... and Bingge isn't sure he can out-argue this minister who can silence him with a glance, so it stands.

SHL catches 5 spies/insurgents trying to sleep with her to mess with the empire. She's laughing her head off because she's more into girls these days, but doesn't mind toying with these idiots. It's fun!

With SHL as the precedent, SY quickly restructures the governance of the empire. MBJ is allowed to run his kingdom almost autonomously, just reporting the important things every quarter (he stole a strange, hamster-y scribe from Bingge's court with the flinsy excuse that Bingge's scribe would write reports for Bingge, but SY just rolled his eyes and let him).

Several competent wives are chosen to be rulers and governors with the same stipulations as SHL and MBJ, and LMY and NYY decide to accept territory and open a school that is completely autonomous - not a sect.

Some wives ask to just... live separately, and SY gives them allowances and support to pursue their own dreams, just without the freedom of sx and romance like the ruling wives, since they will not have the "collateral" of being Bingge's powerful subordinates to ensure their loyalty.

If they wish to leave the harem and pursue their own love SY will allow them to divorce freely, but the allowance will also stop - can't let crafty assholes take advantage of these women, nor let the craftier women take advantage of Bingge.

SY knows this is unfortunate, but nothing will be truly fair to these women no matter what he does. The main mistake was marrying these women with such a huge social power difference and not caring for them in the first place, and he can't really do anything about that.

Of course imperial spies are used to keep track of the women - hell, some of the wives find it interesting to BE the spies... anyway, it's not smooth, but the harem is no longer so unmanageable and the question of heirs is no longer as volatile.

The empire is also running far more smoothly, the order of civic power has been streamlined... it takes several years, but SY overhauls all of Bingge's courts, purging the corrupt and promoting the sincere.

He even has time to teach and lecture Bingge on being both an emperor and a good person...

Bingge has just grown more and more enamoured with this minister with every scolding-followed-by-praise session...

And then one day a certain scribe in the northern desert got drunk and wrote a joke script about his Cucumber bro and the emperor, causing the world to spark one last time and sx-pollen Bingge.. but he gets ed too, which really messes with his self-confidence.

He was already losing faith in his bed skills and now THIS happens?! And how is he horny but can't get it up and what is this cruel joke...

... Long story short, Bingge gets his most trusted court minister to help and it's all shenanigans from there on.

He WILL convince SY to court him!

SY: It must make Bingge so mad that he had to rely on this old man for that. I better make myself scarce and go inspect the empire's borders for several years...

Bingge: Sewing his own wedding gowns.

LMY: Writing old man yaoi about her own husband. Can't decide if she wants a manipulative minister corrupting a naive and incompetent ruler, or a sltty ruler throwing himself at the pure and virtuous minister.

[mayvnwrites]

PIDW Bingge loses his protagonist halo at the moment where Airplane stopped the story.

Suddenly the world comes alive and the NPCs become real people.

His wives suddenly wonder why they let him wed them - honestly, in this fking big harem, they might as well be widows. Only a few of them have had kids with Bingge, since Airplane only bothered to mention a few getting knocked up, and a lot of them were cultivators and demonesses.

They weren't helpless mortal women (bc ancient chinese-ish setting), they could take care of themselves, so why tf are they letting themselves rot in this harem?

That said, now that they're in it, it's hard to leave and be branded as betraying the Emperor, but there is a lot of disgruntled muttering in the corners of the harems' quarters.

Bingge doesn't get it. One day he's, like, the god of sx, and the next his wife of the day is very obviously faking it. And it doesn't get better no matter what he does - before he could feel the admiration radiating off them, now he only feels fear and ... annoyance? Dissatisfaction? Disgust?!

His rule is also starting to fracture, as his minimal efforts in ruling are no longer able to sustain his massive empire. Greedy nobles and scummy scholars (dunno if this is a setting that merchants are “lower“ than peasants) are coming out of the woodwork to sneak as many benefits as they can, since Bingge can't catch them ALL.

Then Bingge vs Bingmei happens, and suddenly Bingge desperately wants a kind shizun... but not as a husband (or at least not primarily as a husband). He just needs someone to teach him wtf he's doing!!!

That weak him gets a teacher worth a damn AND true love?! Unfair!!!!

Old man SY transmigrates in during this time. This SY lived until 85, and his brothers never did come back and take over, so he was the Shen CEO until he finally passed it on to one of their sons (sucker!) at 50, but had to teach the heir everything and be around in case things went south. He was involved in the business until he died.

And no he never got married - he was too busy, Ge-ges. That's right, feel bad about THAT! (j/k, just never fell in love.)

Old man SY transmigrates in as a wife's rogue cultivator father who managed to snag a job in Bingge's courts and ... what do you mean this is PIDW? Goodness, how long ago did he read that... but the protagonist was pretty cool... Oh gods what the HELL is he doing?! Who the fk thinks THIS is an acceptable way to run a business let alone a country?!?

All this personnel bloat... My dear emperor, you can only keep what you can manage, or else all of it will slip out of your hands!

Bingge clings to this SY-shaped lifeline, unaware of the similarities between the kind shizun and this court minister at first, but yknow. Things happen.

Meanwhile old XF appears as one of Bingge's scribes and just wants to burn it all.

What do you MEAN he still has to write all the time for this ahole after he's dead?!

[mayvnwrites]

I feel like some svsss fans don't know what a xianxia sect and its hierarchy implies. I don't think that's a big deal honestly, since the story is understandable without it, but there are some nuances I personally enjoy that could be lost without familiarity with the tropes.

Like how a head disciple is basically Head of the Department (Peak Lord)'s next-in-line being carefully guided and given opportunities to show that guidance. Even if they are not guaranteed the Head position and are still below other official positions, this is the sort of status they bear.

They do not (usually) handle menial tasks such as laundry or drawing shizun's bath because they (usually) have the authority to arrange for it to be done instead. Not to mention that according to the culture of an ancient china-esque setting, having to do these things despite holding status can be considered demeaning.

So, yeah. When you think about how the most privileged and most cherished personal disciple (ie usually the Head Disciple) of a shizun is actually treated, you start realizing how wrong it looked for SY to treat LBH the way he did.

If a Peak Lord holds a disciple in high regard, they normally take that student and cultivate their potential. Along with that they will usually give them some status and authority they can take advantage of, paving the way so that the disciple doesn't "waste" their time and efforts on trivial matters. That way the disciple can focus solely on their studies, cultivation, and more lofty affairs that propel them to success.

Honestly, the "overcoddling" and "improper" accusations thrown SY's way weren't wrong. From the outside, not knowing LBH is half-demon and therefore unlikely to succeed the peak, as well as the inevitable separation looming ahead, it looked like SY was ruining LBH's future in cultivation by keeping him busy with servants' work, despite SY's high praises for LBH's potential.

And that's his favorite disciple? He's not... doing it on purpose right? Like... keeping his disciple serving him... and being dependent on him? Hm... sounds suspicious...

LQG's "jealousy" might genuinely have stemmed from how messed up the situation had appeared... whether it developed into something else is reader interpretation ;)

Of course to SY, he was just compensating LBH for future wrongs (or so he says), so treating the protagonist well and not denying him whatever he wants to do didn't feel wrong. And he still has to stay in character, so letting LBH do servants' work is a kind of bullying ... right?

Anyway, this is just something I think about. I could also be reading too much into it, since mxtx plays pretty loosely with the tropes and concepts, but I think she enjoyed how scandalous SQQ and LBH's relationship appeared to the other characters in the story, so ...

Plus it makes MF going, "What the fuck?!" at how things turned out a lot funnier.

[mayvnwrites]

I like reading everyone's brain bugs for svsss au's, but please, for the love of literacy, please please please attempt to use proper grammar.

I swear I'm not trying to be a grammar snob, in fact my own grammar is far from perfect, but I promise: just trying to use proper grammar will likely get more people to read what you write.

Using proper grammar will definitely reduce the amount of people who misinterpret what you are trying to say, at the very least.

And even if you feel lost with grammar right now, grammar is like any other skill. Just trying to do better will make you better at it, and doing better at grammar will make your ability to communicate soar with leaps and bounds. You can be understood with far less confusion, which can lead to better discussions and more meaningful interactions with others.

And clear discussion between members of the populace is what all controlling powers fear.

[mayvnwrites]

I saw someone say that Nikke was the original gooner gacha game and I laughed.

Nevermind Azur Lane and the original Girls' Frontline, and all the crappy waifu png collectors that would come and go in a month, (I dunno if idol games count - they're less jiggly) all I could think about is Destiny Child the gacha game (not Destiny's Child the 90s music group).

Yknow, the game with art by Hyung-Tae Kim, famous for his anatomical distortion that paints his characters to be as sensual as possible, and one of the earlier games to employ live2d for the purpose of... angles. And the like.

Oh, and Nikke's predecessor lmao.

But while I was looking up the guy's name (I remembered his art and game design work, but I've never been good with names), I saw a blog completely lambasting his art style for being terrible fanservice and how anatomical deformation equals bad art and... ...

I would like to ask why purposeful distortion of reality is "bad art."

I won't deny that HTK's deformation IS, as the kids say, for the gooners, and if you want to scream about misrepresentation of women or whatever, fine, that's a different topic. But I don't think that anatomical deformation, done purposefully and with intent, automatically classifies artworks as "bad."

Deformation and distortion (of anatomy or other parts of reality) to convey intent or to capture feelings ... is pretty par for the course in art, no?

And while I understand why HTK's art earned him the joke name H-King, I honestly can't see his anatomical deformation as anything but an artistic tool in his arsenal to increase a languid feeling, whether it's sensuality or laziness (it's usually laziness/a chill feel for his men). His choice to paint bare buttocks is separate.

Now, whether or not his art inspired tons of others to make terrible attempts at anatomical deformation that just look painful instead of cool or sensual is yet another topic altogether.

I won't say you shouldn't do it if you love the technique. I just think that accepting anatomical deformation as a technique should make one aware that it has a sliding scale of competence, and if executed poorly it can be regarded as poor anatomy and not purposeful deformation.

But that's not the technique's fault, and competence usually rises on the backs of numerous clumsier attempts, so it's fine to keep going until you succeed.

And by the way, what do you mean they're using the Destiny Child IP for an idle rpg version?! And it's Com2us Holdings? Noooo...

[mayvnwrites]

So I played Brave Nine before it died and Brown Dust 2 when it came out, got overwhelmed with the combat mechanics, and stopped for a while.

Picked it back up recently and holy titties have the designs gone... a direction I didn't remember them going. Guess they went with the "sx sells" strategy my goodness.

That said, I picked it back up because I was curious what direction they went with the STORY. Yeah, that's right, this (now) gooner game has amazing world building and characterizations... and it sucks that I'm stuck behind dps checks to find out what's happening! Argh!

Thank you to that guy on reddit who wrote his lengthy impressions of each chapter.

I'm SO glad with the quality of life fixes they've done to streamline combat and crafting and such - much less overwhelming than before - and I still love the characters because they're all quirky and interesting. Just uh... the new costumes ... my goodness. The microbikini-flosses are one thing, but Loen's "bunny girl" outfit is just pasties.

I don't know if I feel comfortable recommending the game due to its large learning curve for combat and aggressive fanservice, but damn I wish I could so that we can have more people geeking out over the world building. (And yes there are men in this world. Playable, even.)

I really like the world building and story. The main story is a jrpg fantasy style setting... but *gasp* it's not about the end of the world. Well, I guess it could result in that possibly, if the bad guys go unchecked, but the goal is more to stop the bad guys because they're doing horrible things to people and countries, and all the while you're trying to figure their out goal, as well as unraveling the secrets behind your comrades.

And that means you're left wanting to know wtf is going on, which is way better than being able to see where the plot's going from day 1.

Everything is connected, too. I appreciated the foreshadowing and little hints that are revealed to be important much later - honestly, it's pretty good video game writing, even if it suffers from overdone melodrama and pacing issues.

The themes are... really mature as well. And not the normal mature you'd expect from a gooner game, it's the "this is just a complicated topic" kind of mature.

The side stories are a little more light-hearted, usually, taking place in an alt universe with alt versions of the characters, and the character stories are very very loosely based on something from pop culture (like Fallout for the apocalyptic subway bunker au and Pan's Labyrinth for the more fairytale style au).

Now, as much as I have good things to say about the game, I also dislike a lot of things about it too, hence why I stopped playing before.

A lot of the annoying fiddly bits have been fixed with QoL improvements, but one thing that is still confusing is the ui choices. Honestly, if I can't find/figure something out, a google search is the first thing I do. It's much more efficient than trying to find it when the ui isn't intuitive.

Also the tutorials that keep popping up are annoying - I know it's because I have 2 years of new additions and fixes to catch up on, but that doesn't make it less annoying. And don't get me started on the loading screens!

The tier lists are also... Look, it's a complicated game, so good freaking luck using a tier list. While it's nice that 3 and 4 stars are still useful, it's overwhelming to try to figure out roles and range and positioning and synergy and elements... It's much better to just look up people's sample teams while you're learning than use a tier list , but gathering your preferred characters is ALSO confusing.

Maybe you'd think it's great that good units are not only gotten through gacha but also other more reliable ways ... but as a new player (or at least someone who forgot how things work), the recruitment system is just another thing you have to figure out. And the costume system is cool... but some are extra limited and some can pop up in the shops... it's just a lot to learn when you're trying not to waste pulling resources.

All in all, I don't know if I'd recommend it, but i do wish more people are talking about the actually good parts of the game, not the jiggle physics.

And uh, while I don't mind fanservice myself, it's definitely not a game for those who find being jumpscared by wet, micro-bikini-ed boobs flattened "against" the screen objectionable.

[mayvnwrites]

Just a thought I had after watching Silver Wolf 999's demo...

So it's obvious that TB is special to Kafka (as a pawn/comrade/other yet tbd), but seeing the vibes of Silver Wolf 999's demo, TB's probably special to all the other Stellaron Hunters too.

When TB left, did Silver Wolf lose her closest gaming buddy? If so, no wonder she keeps popping up whenever we're playing games, trying them out and hacking them just to appear and say, "Hey, I'm here too, and look what I did!" She always makes it a point to show herself to TB, and usually just TB, to chat and flaunt her scores... and it's just fun to think it's because she's so used to doing it that she continues even if TB doesn't remember her.

It also makes sense that it meant a lot to Firefly to try to "perfect" a "first meeting" with TB. It's probably the only time she could "redo" a meeting as the ordinary person she wants to be with someone she cares about, and I can see that bit of make-believe as something precious to her. Losing the comradery she used to have to make new memories as her "ideal self" is... maybe not the healthiest sentiment to have, but I can see how Firefly would treasure the chance.

As for Blade ... he has said how he doesn't know much about TB's past, but since when has TB needed a backstory to make friends? Anyway the guy's at least half a tsundere. You have to take his denials with a grain of salt.

I play Caelus so I also can't help thinking that two dudes at the mercy of three strong-willed women might end up buddies out of commiseration, but I think Stelle would be Blade's bro due to similar reasons as well, just not quite as succinctly.

Anyway, I just think it's fun to head canon some of the Stellaron Hunter TB stuff.

[mayvnwrites]

I dunno why SY is always my model for messy sketches whenever I want to "just paint something."

He's wearing either a suede/wool coat inspired by Tang style robes. I actually wanted a more neutral olive green for the coat, buut I didn't have a palette and was too lazy to improvise so I just used as-is colors which are way too saturated. And now that I look at it, I think a deep blue for the lining would be better than gold.

This isn't strictly for ATAPAS, but I feel like returned-to-modernity SY would choose clothing with more hanfu-inspired elements than regular clothes. Maybe he had always wanted to rock the hanfu/cosplay before but couldn't bring himself to until after he transmigrated.

After coming back, he uses his rich boy powers to commission young designers to make hanfu with modern elements.

Shang Qinghua doesn't care either way and will wear whatever he's got, although he now likes looser clothing with a defined waistline. Maybe he likes tall boots now and wears robes and such as outer/lounge wear.

Liu Qingge 100% prefers modern clothing after he gets over being scandalized by the amount of skin showing.

What do you mean he can just pull sht on, ignore accessories, and be out the door in like 2 seconds? No way he's fiddling with robes and bracers and belts if he doesn't have to.

[mayvnwrites]

Alright, played Mongil Star Dive until the end of the current story content, so I think I have a better look at the game.

Mongil Star Dive feels more like the developers trying to show you a world they built and the characters that live within rather than a game trying to wow you with its flashiness or mechanics. A just-have-fun kind of game... with some tryhard stages in the endgame.

Story? Cute, good, easily digestible, and features playable characters in a way that doesn't diminish them. Not a magnum opus, but also doesn't overstay its welcome and overuse plotpoints.

Vibes? Whimsical jrpg fantasy world with a korean spin and ragnorak online style monsters (and one optional spider boss you should avoid if arachnophobic; the other spidies look like fuzzy hocky pucks, so less worrisome). It focuses on comedy and natural worldbuilding rather than trying to be the edgiest mf out there, a WELCOME breath of fresh air.

For a korean game there is a lot less scantily clad women than I expected, but it has been a long time since Tera Online, Blade & Soul, and all those Korean MMOs, so maybe I was being unreasonable anyway. It was very nice to see more female characters that aren't just waifu bait in gacha games. (I mean they are, but girl failures and women with more personality than their roles in the story/waifu traits are too rare in these games.)

Mongil Star Dive is not really an openworld game, it's a game with many dungeons connected to each other, and THANK GOD. Openworld games can be overwhelming, and I don't need to play more than one or two. That said, there is still the fun of exploring a map, and the teleport system in the quest tracker makes getting to where you need to go easy. Definitely use that, or you'll be fumbling through the maps like crazy in the future.

Combat is ... kinda clunky compared to wuwa and zzz, but in an old school kinda way rather than just being bad. It doesn't bother me, but boy are many things about it not explained. You can intuit most of it, but it would still be nice to have an explanation in game.

(Still trying to work out the different damage types. Brawl, suppression, neutralization, and support damage confuse me. I thought brawl=fighter class stat, suppression=assassin class stat, neutralization=destroyer class stat, and support=support class stat, but that didn't seem right. I'm at the conclusion that brawl dmg=?, suppression dmg=dmg done to enemies staggered, knocked down, airborne, or otherwise cc'ed, neutralization dmg=dmg done to the stagger bar, and support dmg=dmg done through support skills, but Ophelia buffs support dmg on herself and has no support skill as a selfish dps (buffs only herself), so... I dunno.)

The game IS very grindy. Not for pulls, the game launch honeymoon makes it hard to judge exactly how that's gonna go, but leveling characters and weapons is... Ooph. Lots of materials needed. There is an auto-clear for grinding, but still.

That said, the other half of grinding, for equipment and monster captures, is more like grinding in an old school mmo where you run around killing monsters for monsterlings and doing requests to kill boss monsters for equipment. And yeah, other gachas have killing mobs for materials, but it just feels a little different here for some reason. Maybe because you don't have to kill mobs for much for than a few items you need rather than hundreds of items.

The difficulty in endgame does ramp up drastically, so uh, gl to the casuals out there. I don't mind it myself, but if you want to tackle rift and later conquest stages, leveling up multiple elemental teams and perfecting equipment/monsterlings is going to be pretty important.

All in all I can't see it being a powerhouse in gacha games, but it's fun and quirky with its own identity instead of being yet another gacha trying to top all the previous gachas.

[mayvnwrites]

So after trying out Mongil Star Dive, I can say... it's very very charming. I will probably continue to play it casually for the foreseeable future.

The story is well done, nothing profound and pretty straightforward, but it feels appropriate for the game they've constructed. At least I'm not left wondering if it would be better as a book - the story bites feel good intermixed between gameplay.

The characters are also charming and complex, and quite frankly designed with a lot of heart. AND THE PLAYER ISN'T THE MAIN CHARACTER. MongilSD is framed more like a jrpg, where the player is just the person flipping the pages for the characters to progress.

This actually makes the story more interesting, as various characters pop up and become the protagonists of their own stories instead of devolving into power-fantasy-ville.

As for the gameplay... some people might be tempted to say it's like wuwa because of the monster capturing vibes, but I was getting flashbacks to old school Ragnorak Online if it was a jrpg instead of an mmo.

Boss difficulty DOES start ramping up after ep3, so if you want to progress story fast I highly suggest playing in casual mode - you can save the tryhard stuff for conquest and rift modes. It's just that they don't let you overlevel your characters for the boss fights, and I could FEEL the hell it could be for some of the later bosses despite being in casual mode myself.

I also love that the bosses feel different. Wuwa bosses all kind of felt the same to me, but MongilSD bosses had appropriate weight/heft/god modes for their species/status.

Now. Resources.

You do NOT get enough resources to squander on more than one team right away. This isn't bad per se, since it's just for now as you try to speed through the story and unlock as many things as possible, but it will drastically slow your roll if you invest in more than 3 chars at the beginning.

Building characters will definitely be a chore in this game... but the auto clear button for farming makes everything much easier.

They are pretty generous with pulls too, with sidequests giving standard banner pulls and the premium currency being given everywhere ... I just had terrible luck and pulled mostly weapons and Francis.

I do like that there is nothing stopping you from progressing the story (ie player level)... except if you can beat the boss at the end of the chapter. Like... it's so nice that the progression of the story is so natural feeling.

As for things I'm dissatisfied with, the windows opened for various things exit completely instead of going to previous windows when closed, the weapon designs are... um. Weak, you can only track one quest objective at a time, and the game doesn't do a great job of explaining everything.

Like, each monster's elemental weakness will pop up under their hp bar btw, and destroyers increase the stagger bar of bosses more efficiently than other classes. Or that you click the area emblem on the map to change areas, and selecting a monsterling for combining will spawn little dna symbols on other monsterlings that have a chance to mutate when combined.

That said, I find Mongil Star Dive to be a very charming game made by people who definitely love and care for this game world and its characters.

[mayvnwrites]

It's too early for me to say if Mongil Star Dive is yay or nay, but if you like boy failures and/or are feeling nostalgic for Ragnarok Online, it satisfies.

[mayvnwrites]

I think it's important to remember that Shen Jiu was (probably) not naive and didn't just blindly believe that Yue Qi would come for him no matter what.

Maybe he still clung to the promise the entire time at the Qiu manor, but maybe the hope fizzled out and he began to think something had happened to Yue Qi, or maybe he had just been forgotten.

But no, when they finally met, Yue Qi not only recognized him immediately, Yue Qi was also the Head Disciple of one of the most powerful sect leaders in the world. So then why? Why did someone with all that power, who still remembered him, not uphold his promise?

And then Yue Qi hits him with the "you must have done terrible things," and he realizes.

Yue Qi really did turn into another "man in power," looking down on all those beneath him. That's why Qi-ge never came back, because a promise with a slave boy would tarnish the Great Head Disciple's reputation.

And as for the hope he feels when Yue Qingyuan apologizes and grovels? It's quickly destroyed because it just sounds like a man in a high position trying to brush his impropriety under the rug after he's been caught.

(Shen I just need a reason, any reason that made it impossible for you to come back Jiu and Yue that is literally the one thing I don't want to talk about Qi)

---

I do love soggy feral cats with abandonment issues, though, so by all means keep giving SJ the biggest, sloppiest abandonment issues and tsundere hyperfixation on his Qi-ge.

[mayvnwrites]

Every time I see HSR Cyrene's ring animation, it makes me :/

I really wish they didn't go with the wedding motif for her, because Cyrene's situation just lacks the nuances that made it work for Hi3 Elysia.

Elysia's love for humanity was unconditional, a pure love for the potential of humans, and the focus of her sacrifice wasn't to save the world but to give humans the chance to resist and fight back. What said humans did with that chance didn't dictate whether she dedicated herself to giving it to them. Thus the "bride of humanity" design feels very poetic and beautiful.

Cyrene might have the same feelings, but it either wasn't developed well or wasn't fully shown. Her sacrifice was as much about defying Lygus/Irontomb/fate as it was about the people/world she loved.

Of course that doesn't diminish her love for Amphoreus, but the direct defiance against Lygus and Irontomb does make her actions more about heroism than love. Besides, who is she "in love" with? Amphoreus? The cosmos? All life? Trailblazing? It feels a bit open-ended, muddling the metaphor. As someone who has never experienced truly "living" but treasures the lives and sacrifices of others, instead of a bride motif, some sort of priestess motif to show her purity and dedication, or something with a dreamier quality like a fairy to show her desires and optimism might have suited Cyrene more.

Of course this is me just spitballing. I'm sure the devs had the considerations and still chose to go with bride of ... Amphoreus/Trailblazing maybe? Cyrene for a reason. I'm just not seeing it ... but Amphoreus was long, man. I probably forgot some details or something.