[mayvnwrites]

So I lost my 5 yr account on Epic Seven (thanks to facebook shenanigans).

Mind, I didn't play consistently, almost once a year after getting stuck on story, and only had one freebie collab unit and am f2p so it didn't sting quite that badly (was more infuriated with facebook being misleading), and yeah I know e7’s been pro get-off-social-media-accts and i just didn't bother (regret) ... but holy carp, the benefits new players get that returnees don't is STACKED.

Just the three meta limited chars and their artifacts are crazy, but Iseria? The already leveled equipment? And yeah I got the hunt quests belatedly as a returnee, but when I first played we didn't get the units to clear hunt, which means progression was tough, and I struggled for AGES with juggling low level gear.

I remember that to pass wyvern I had to spend the skystones for Alexa's summer event to specialty change her because I never got Sigret, and didn't get Furious for ages so I still struggled until Muwi came out. And then shortly after they just gave you all the units for wyvern so I was just like :/

As a "new" player I can already clear highest difficulty in 4 days. I'm almost back to where my old account was, minus Shuna and the more sparse rgb (fire/ice/earth) roster.

My moonlight (dark/light) roster is already... kinda better in quality although less in quantity. You get to pull 3 chars and choose one for every moonlight box in the radiance event as a newbie?! I just kept getting dupes that went poof into thin air on my old account (bc you don't get the dupes in the event, just some event currency).

It helps that I got dark Bellona and Briar Witch back almost immediately, so I wasn't too upset about losing the girls I struggled for the most on the old account.

Although because of the player names having to be unique, even though I deleted the old account before I could no longer log back in, I am now Mavyn instead of Mayvn, but visually it kinda makes no difference lol.

(Also helps that i lost the old account in the first half of Epic Dash, the huge yearly (i assume, it's happened 3 times anyway) progression boost event.)

EDIT: Yay I got my Zealot Carmainrose back! And some people might be like, why do you care about a 3* specialty change who only has a very specific niche purpose, but Carmainrose was the first char I used where I actually understood e7’s gimmick and knew how to counter it. (Also when I realized that tierlists ... aren't that great in e7. You really have to listen to the list maker's reasons behind each char and decide if those reasons are relevant to yourself.) She's special to me.

[mayvnwrites]

I am terrible at designing tattoos, but couldn't help doodling ink master sy. His beard is too full, imo, but my dull colored pencils weren't capable of it... uh... where is my sharpener?

[mayvnwrites]

Liu Qingge falls into a hidden realm, one of the ones that have temporary connections to the outside world and the entrance randomly spawns in places with lots of spiritual energy.

He had been chasing a giant dragon-like mytha-thingamabobber and both he and it ran into this hidden realm.

To LQG's alarm, before he realizes he's entered a hidden realm, he first realizes he's chasing the flying lizard towards an unsuspecting bystander! But before he could call out a warning, the person wearing a weimao looked up at the lizard.

It didn't look like the person did much more than sigh, but the lizard suddenly froze before spiraling out as if a drop of ink dripped into a cup of water and irreverently stirred with a brush.

It wasn't horrific nor gruesome, simply as if the lizard had always been ink and now returned to its original form before falling to the ground like rain.

It was beautiful... and eerie.

Amidst the black ink rain the person turned, and now LQG could see that it was a man underneath the weimao - a man with scruffy hair and a scruffier, scraggly beard.

A blue light glinted in his eyes as he looked at LQG, and then the blue glow, and tension, was gone.

"Oh, a guest? That's rare," the man drawled lazily, and a shadow flitted across his face - no, that wasn't a shadow.

A ripple of scales, in ink and the blue glow of qi, pulsed as something moved across his skin.

LQG quickly realized that what he found was an ink master.

But... weren't ink masters gone? Thanks to an erroneous judgement of the righteous sects, that called the ink masters demonic and a movement headed by Huan Hua Palace to "eradicate" the threat, the ink master sects were abolished and the art lost to time.

Only after the fact did the OPM regretfully say that they had jumped the gun, and perhaps the art of mystic ink was not demonic. If any remaining ink masters cared to step forward, the righteous cultivators would strive to make amends.

But no ink masters ever came out, and all assumed that the ink masters had, regrettably, died out.

But here was the last remaining ink master...

"Hey, Xiang Fei, did the realm open up recently or whatever?" the man wearing the weimao called out, and a squirrelly looking cultivator with ink splatters along the hems and cuffs of his robes popped out of the tall grass.

Make that two ink masters.

LQG soon learns that a small group of ink master remnants were living in this hidden realm under the leadership of the weimao-wearing man, Shen Yuan, and the little squirrelly man, Xiang Fei.

Shen Yuan had mastered the art of mystic ink and wore his army in the ever-shifting patterns of his skin, while Xiang Fei embodied the power of his written words, as well as being something of a prophet.

It was under Xiang Fei's foresight that a small portion of the ink masters had been away when their sects were destroyed, and it was Shen Yuan who organized them and led them to study their arts in seclusion.

LQG gets to know the ink masters, finds it fun to go hunting and sparring with SY, and in general has to uncover a conspiracy about HHP and why letting one sect alone run the cultivation world's court and incarceration regulations is a bad idea.

[mayvnwrites]

I have no problems with the HSR Robin and Aventurine variants being summer themed to match the summer resort world... but my leniency may be because of my immense disappointment with Browndust 2 swimsuit designs.

I actually quit Browndust 2 over my disappointment that the costumes all look the same because there are only so many ways you can strategically string dental floss. Yes I'm fine with fanservice, but when all the characters are wearing the same thing ... there's no incentive to pull or care about the characters in any way. (I will say that, to the dev's credit, they did wear the swimsuit designs on stream. So yes, they put the girls in horrible (and honestly kinda ugly) shoestring outfits, but the three male devs didn't put the girls in anything they didn't wear themselves ... to everyone's horror)

So a swimsuit that suits the char's image and presents a summery, fun, beach vibe is fine by me.

I don't mind Robin's casual and fun look, and Aventurine absolutely looks like a rich kid on holiday. As long as every fanservice outfit looks like it was designed with the char's traits in mind, I'm good.

The comedy of swimsuit Robin/Aventurine fighting monsters in space also tickles my fancy... but I guess I can see how that could annoy people.

[mayvnwrites]

Casting a curse or something that requires a virgin to dispel would essentially be like sentencing someone to death in a world like svsss, where half the plants have sx pollen and a legitimate medical treatment is sx.

The hunt for the cure would be like, really rare fking plant that only blooms once every thousand years or blood of a virgin, and everyone would be like, looking for the plant is faster.

[mayvnwrites]

And as usual, SY is ol unreliable, so here's other chars' pov's on my version of Bai Zhan shixiong SY au.

Actually, this is pretty representative of all my thought processes before writing a story, where thinking through each person's pov keeps adding to the plot background and it gets a bit out of my control lol.

Btw SY is 7 yrs older than SQH and approximately thereabouts for SJ. Make your calculations accordingly for the rest of the cast.

---SQH---

XF is thrilled that he has a buddy transmigrator, even if it's his favorite hater. Anyway, looks like his hater can't bring himself to be a big ol meanie to a kid and lil SQH is just ~six~!

SQH officially decides to be as "baby brother" to SY's "cool older brother" as he can possibly be, especially when he finds out he can outsource a lot of things to SY to do and it doesn't upset his System.

The two transmigrators not only start planning to subvert the plot, but also end up meta-gaming CQM's rise to prominence even before the demon war. It wasn't on purpose! But Cucumber Bro was so powerful at this point that it was trivial for him to bring back any magic mcguffin Airplane mentioned. It just kinda happened!

Airplane and SY are known as a pair of rapscallions, the An Ding Peak Lord fearing that his hand-picked administration baby will be led astray by that reckless Bai Zhan brat!

After all, SY enjoyed reckless fighting, tearing up the training fields on every peak with disciples that dared to accept his challenges, talking back to his elders and questioning the way things are run on CQM, eagerly found loopholes in all the rules ... a true problem child!!!

... That said, he keeps bringing back useful souvenirs like beasts for the beast peak, cataclysmic plants and monster parts for Qian Cao, wild drinking games for Zui Xian, demonic swords for Wan Jian to play with/melt down, and even yellow books for Xian Shu... wait. Why that one?!

Either way, the AD Peak Lord just grits his teeth and tries to ignore SY's transgressions as he basically becomes the big brother of all of CQM.

He even misses the kid a little when SY stays off CQM for ten years. That foolish BZ Peak Lord... the kid clearly doesn't want to be Head Disciple, just give up! Or are you going to keep it up and make him avoid CQM until we all ascend?!

Of course, the AD Peak Lord was frustrated when SY dumped a bunch of kids at the mountain's base and asked them to deal with it... Goodness! It was a pain in the ass to figure out what to do with them - some couldn't stay on the mountain thanks to their incompatibility with qi and cultivation after all!

Ugh... at least they pulled out a few potential genius cultivators from the bunch or this would be not worth finding adoptive parents and apprenticeships for the noncultivator kiddos.

When SY returns, SQH is thrilled to have his big bro and fellow co-conspirator back and the two become thick as thieves again, for all that SY becomes the entire sect's big brother again.

Plus they have a war to prevent and a mother-to-be to save! Unfortunately... the System stops both SQH and SY from intervening this time. In the form of punishing SQH.

Now, Cucumber Bro might be Airplane's hater, but SY sees SQH as baby brother, so of course he hates letting the System punish SQH. They can only watch helplessly despite trying to save SXY after LBH drifts away.

Of course they fail, bumming the two transmigrators out. They figure that anything directly related to LBH cannot be changed. Even though other major plotpoints are easily changed, like the scum villain showing up WAY earlier (SQH isn't sure exactly when, but SJ wasn't supposed to be practically raised on CQM) and MBJ has zeroed in on HHP for some reason instead of fighting cultivators in general (SQH doesn't realize how much he mutters about the OPM as the war comes closer and closer. MBJ just wants all the stressors gone so he can court his hamster; he is getting REALLY pissed off at HHP for occupying SQH's time all the time.).

The cumplane relationship is a lot more chill and familial in this au, although there's a lot of the "older brother" bullying the "younger brother" and the "younger brother" ragebaiting the "older brother."

---SQQ---

SJ didn't have much hope while living on the streets.

Luckily he was goodlooking, or else he would have had a limb broken or an eye blinded to look even more pitiful as he begged on the streets. But living under these slvers who made them beg ... not only did they barely get enough to eat no matter how many coins they got for the day, but they were always in danger of bodily harm dependent on the slvers' whims.

Besides, being goodlooking was as much a liability as it was an asset when you were in SJ's shoes. It was only a matter of time before this lifestyle caught up to him and Qi-ge.

But then a young man came and destroyed that slver gang.

At first SJ still had dim hopes.

With his former slvers, at least he knew what to expect. Doing a "good deed" by freeing a bunch of kids and then leaving them alone ... It wouldn't be long before they were caught again by new slvers who might treat them even worse, or maybe they'd be kidnapped for even more nefarious things.

"Aw man, I should've known assholes who blast-mine in unstable terrain without caring about causing a cave-in would have other, more detestable means of making a profit," the young cultivator groaned, hand on face. He peeked at the kids... "... Fuck. I can't just leave them..."

Well at least he had some brains. But can he actually walk the walk, or does he just talk the talk?

"Should we go with him?" Qi-ge asked, nervous just like all the other kids who didn't know what to do.

"... We need to at least get out of this town," SJ said.

Too many people recognized them as beggars. If they wanted any hope of breaking out of this life, they needed to at least leave. It's hard to pass up a free escort for the road.

And then, while on the road, SJ saw the cultivator lift up a "stuck" cart to "help" some bandits who had set it up for an ambush ... with one arm.

Threatening them with a pleasant smile that was far more intimidating than a sword... SJ was so impressed he forgot to slip away until they had reached CQM.

... Wait, the guy wasn't just giving them empty promises, he actually had the pull to get CQM to help them?!

"Right, just tell them Shen Yuan dropped you off okay? Great. Gotta go!"

...? Was he good with CQM? Why did he leave so quickly?

"Ah! Shixiong! Shen Shixiong! Shizun promised not to make you Head Disciple, so just come back!"

"He said that last time too! Forget it forget it, I'll come back for good when he actually picks a Head Disciple. Today I came back suddenly, but next time I'll drop off some souvenirs!"

As SJ and the CQM disciple watched the guy speed away on his sword, SJ couldn't help feeling curious about CQM, if they spawned a strange one like this Shen Yuan.

SJ gets by well in CQM. He and Qi-ge get split up, but SJ knows what's better for both of them even if he's a little displeased. Anyway, they somehow ended up as Head Disciples of two different peaks! Former backgrounds really meant nothing once you became a cultivator. Only strength and talent mattered.

Of course SJ still has a bit of an inferiority complex, so he hides his background. He won't lie about it if it comes down to it, but he gets a kick out of it whenever anyone mistakes him for being from a rich and more prominent family. (Without living among the Qius he can't perfect the noble act, but he gets close, and it's probably better this way.)

The next time he sees SY was shortly after the BZ Peak Lord appointed a Head Disciple.

Despite SY's occasional brief visits back to CQM, he really stayed away the entire time just like he said he would ...

At first this "CQM's Shixiong" is a little awkward around SJ, making SJ paranoid and nervous, but it disappears after a bit and SJ is endlessly teased instead, much to his bewilderment. It's light-hearted teasing, and SY doesn't seem to remember SJ being part of the beggar kids he saved, so SJ really is confused. He eventually chalks it up to SY being a little weird anyway.

(SY dislikes SJ at first on account of PIDW, but doesn't want to "punish" someone for crimes he hasn't done, leading to his lukewarm and awkward manner with SJ.)

(Everyone can tell even if he thinks he's hiding it, but SQH, under the impression that they can still mess with the plot, quickly reassures SY that SJ isn't likely to become the scum villain. The timing and tragic arc seems to be all messed up... the rest of CQM watches SY chase SQH around the peaks while yelling about hack authors and misinformation. They're used to it.)

(Soon SY takes an interest in getting SJ to loosen up and act more like a kid, resulting in the teasing and silly gifts. He has to reassure YQY that he is not trying to court SJ, just wants all the kids to remain kids as long as possible, and since SY does give out gifts to lots of people all the time, it passes.)

A more confident SJ and less guilt-ridden YQY makes for a fun qijiu power couple because the basic dynamic is still the same, but YQY goes, "Oh, woe is me, I couldn't let Xiao Jiu live a life of leisure and luxury..." and SJ smacks him upside the head with a, "You think I NEEDED a man to get to where I am today?!" leaving YQY to happily (through tears) say, "Of course not, everything Xiao Jiu says is right!"

Their martial siblings are always stuck between amusement and nausea when watching them interact.

---LQG---

Ever since he got to CQM, LQG has heard about this super strong shixiong who is smart, crafty, and also kind.

Every story he hears sounds more and more outlandish, but so many people tell the same stories that they have to have some sort of truth to them.

The culture of Bai Zhan has become slightly less fight-y, emphasizing fighting smarter, not harder, but that suits LQG just fine since rampant fighting on BZ Peak is still present.

Not off it, but LQG doesn't find fighting people off BZ Peak, outside of official martial exchanges, that interesting anyway.

He still has a complex about fighting dirty, but acknowledges it as a way some people choose despite avoiding it completely himself. (He does think he's better for not being tricky, but isn't as harsh on people who are... a bit of a superiority complex vibe.)

LQG takes all of the jealous "you'll never be as good as Shen Shixiong" as idle talk. Sure, this Shen Shixiong is probably really strong and he's really looking forward to fighting Shen Shixiong, but the difference can't be THAT big ...

SY accidentally wipes the floor with LQG on their first spar.

He didn't mean to! The kid just ran right into the misdirection he set up! Liu-shidi, if you recognize the setup, don't take it straight on! Just because you CAN brute force your way through doesn't mean you SHOULD!

Worried about LQG's future, SY entertains most of his challenges, but also tries to keep the kid on his toes. Not by ambushing him or through combat, but by teasing. Seriously, now that SJ avoided his trauma arc, LQG is the sect's biggest stick-in-the-mud and far too rigid. He needs loosen up, or things will get tough for him in the future... but man his expressions and how flustered he gets is kind of fun...

Teasing LQG eventually becomes SY's favorite pasttime.

Teasing SQH is just mutually hurting each other (j/k but there's a lot of back-and-forth), and teasing SJ is more like seeing how much he can get away with before SJ calls him out, but teasing LQG is just so fun!

You don't even need to do much, just staring at him gets him all flustered! Plus the kid's a total softie on the inside!

LQG doesn't know what to do with this shixiong who can't leave him alone, enjoys wrestling pseudo dragons, and has a wild, roguish personality that seems to attract all the bees and butterflies!!! Letting them mess around about Shen shixiong is just going to encourage him!

Shen Shixiong uses despicable means, indulges in frivolities, and even corrupts those around him (finding out he discusses yellow books with the Xian Shu girlies mortified LQG for months) - and yet he can still beat him?! LQG is SO annoyed!

Yah, most of the rest of their disciple years involves the two of them trying to "fix" each other, among other things, and everyone just goes, "Aw, look, they're bonding."

LQG and SJ have almost no opinions on each other, other than vague disdain. They just don't mesh well, but with BZ's less antagonistic approaches to other peaks and an SY occupying most of his time, he doesn't view YQY as a goal/idol, and he doesn't care much about any trickery SJ employs because SY has definitely done worse.

This is where I'd normally drop it, preferring to let writing the story dictate the rest of the liushen dynamics, but I probably won't write this one, so uh ... probably LQG mellows out while SY remains his good ol charming self, and LQG starts trying to court him while wondering how he fell for the most oblivious man in the world.

I assume needing to defeat shixiong is also a factor in LQG's head.

LMY is highly entertained and doesn't know if she supports this or not because, yeah, SY would make a badass in-law who can beta for her, but also her brother's frustrations and the will-they-wont-they tension is delicious delicious material.

---LBH---

LBH is far too baby for SY to be romantically attracted to at this point, but be the protagonist's cool martial uncle? Hell yeah!

It doesn't even seem that out of place since LBH is one of YQY's prized disciples, and SY has always enjoyed playing uncle to his martial siblings' personal disciples. Maybe he treats LBH a little better than others, but, well, no one really minds all that much. They're more concerned about LQG's lack of personal disciples, tbh.

LBH is a little confused at this guy who even the Peak Lords call "shixiong" (it's a running joke that SY is CQM's shixiong, so the appellation stuck even among the older disciples and his superiors), but he finds SY's rogueish demeanor attractive.

Still, he finds milf energy YQY pretty damn attractive too, and although he's not serious about it, he does daydream here or there... until SJ hears about the special treatment YQY is giving LBH. Actually, SJ is just missing how YQY cared for him in the past and is a little jealous that LBH gets to experience it, but the whole ordeal (a public argument, YQY getting the silent treatment for a week, finally capitulating in the two becoming cultivation partners and a lot of pda) is a little traumatizing.

LBH still admires YQY, and he thinks he would also be groveling if he made his loved one angry, but uh... yeah, let's... avoid THAT situation again. LBH doesn't want to be a homewrecker!

It doesn't help that puberty hits a few years later and LBH is having a hard time with that clear mind bit of cultivation when there are so many hot men on this mountain! But he keeps himself under control, mostly, because CQM is the best home he's had and he doesn't want to fk it up. (Maybe he and other curious disciples explore a bit, just to see what dual cultivation is like, I dunno.)

And then the IAC happens, LBH thinks he's going to be killed, but is shocked when SJ defends him in the OPM's face. (SJ saw a look in the OPM's eyes he didn't like. Just because he never had his Qiu Manor arc doesn't mean he can't detect a creeper a mile away.)

SQH and SY are SHOCKED when SJ doesn't punt LBH into the Abyss, but quickly decide that the System only cares if one of the transmigrators changes the plot. Native characters still have free reign ... but really, just what has changed SJ so much? It's a mystery.

SY, with all his mastery in bs and the cliffnotes he got from SQH, steps forward and decisively stops OPM from dragging LBH off into the Water Prison by wondering if the OPM was trying to divert their attention, since the demons were yelling, "Revenge on HHP!! Death to the OPM!"

Really, just why was MBJ so fixated on HHP? That is also a mystery. (MBJ wants his proposal gift to be OPM's head, since SQH seems to hate him so much. Also, the demons know what OPM was up to during the war, so why not?)

Come to think of it, there were some interesting rumors about OPM and his infatuation with his former Head Disciple... SY weaves some really good bullshit that casts suspicion on OPM's involvement and motives about wanting to get LBH into the water prison (which inadvertently makes GYX start feeling really damn uncomfortable). He then ties LBH up with some immortal binding cables, saying that CQM had to conduct its own investigations, and did they REALLY think CQM would let a prisoner escape?

Shen Shixiong is good at spewing nonsense with a clear conscience as always... but SJ is grateful for once as Shen Shixiong hoists his husband's most prized disciple over one shoulder and speeds off before anyone could stop him.

And that's where I'll stop, because the rest is yadda yadda down with OPM yadda yadda LBH backstory reveal yadda yadda yadda...

[mayvnwrites]

Lemme put my own spin on Bai Zhan shixiong SY.

SY transmigrates into a timid NPC who was supposed to be set dressing to prove how cruel Bai Zhan disciples could be. An "initiation" for a new outer disciple turned hazing turned "unfortunate mistake" ... the poor kid couldn't keep up with the rowdiness of the other disciples and died due to a mishap.

The worst thing was that the kid wasn't dead on impact. The other Bai Zhan disciples didn't realize he was injured, and the kid died due to not getting medical attention in time.

How nasty, how cruel... SY had been furious when he read about it at the time, but it had been presented as an event from the past, a "one time the Bai Zhan disciples even did this," so it wasn't like he knew any details.

Now that he had transmigrated in... with a dull throb in the back of his head, SY understood how the Bai Zhan disciples "accidentally" left the kid alone.

The Bai Zhan disciples were still horrible terrors and hazing the newbies is a bad thing to do, don't get him wrong, but ... it might be understandable why the other disciples mistook their strength on a very new, barely cultivating new disciple.

After all, the only reason such a timid guy made it onto Bai Zhan was because he possessed freakish superhuman strength. Even without cultivating!

Too used to others with that kind strength being more durable, how could these dimwits realize that a simple knock on the head could kill him?

Of course you couldn't, they're too dumb ... not that SY was going to let them get away with it now that he was here!

Getting up, SY started sullenly walking away from the rowdy rabble.

"Hey, where are you going?! How do you think you're going to last on Bai Zhan if you're running away so easily?!"

The rest of the disciples began to jeer, and SY's head was throbbing. From the fall or the noise, didn't matter.

With an oh so sinisterly sweet smile plastered on his face, SY turned.

For some reason, a shiver ran down the belligerent disciple's spine. This annoyingly timid guy was suddenly ... a little terrifying.

"Where am I going? Why, I'm going to Qian Cao Peak, Shixiong. After all, I haven't started cultivating yet, I can't take so many hits. It would be terrible if Bai Zhan's newest disciple died because his shixiongs didn't know how to control their strength - how terribly would that reflect on the abilities of Bai Zhan Peak?"

Everyone involved in the outer disciples' impromptu initiation gets in major trouble, especially as SY, bandage on his head and a doctor's Qian Cao healer's note on extreme disapproval of the situation, points out that "making a mistake" like this again would be a disaster on a mission.

"Certainly they forgot that I am still no more than a mortal because of my strength, but what if it's a demon or beast they're hunting? Will they let down their guard because it seemed weak? Or if a target they're escorting is decent with a sword, would they forget to guard him properly because they think he can handle himself? Lord of Bai Zhan Peak, please consider that as righteous cultivators, the mind should be as agile and sharp as the sword. Or should we wait until our own swords tear through our bonds as martial siblings and shred Cang Qiong's righteousness to pieces?"

Bai Zhan Peak Lord: ... Did a kid from Qing Jing end up here by mistake? And why is this ball of potential relegated to an outer disciple?

(The original kid was too timid so he was dismissed as a fringe disciple despite his strength. In this au, only the Peak Lord's personal disciples can call him Shizun, since outer/fringe disciples would likely never be taught by the Peak Lord. Only when they showed promise would they be selected by a shizun, and even then it might not be the Peak Lord but another elder.)

The BZ Peak Lord is intrigued by SY's demeanor and makes him an inner disciple, although still not one of his personal disciples.

With better resources and guidance, SY's own exceptional abilities in cultivation (cough*transmigratorcheats*cough), and the original's superhuman strength, SY grows to be one of the strongest and craftiest Bai Zhan disciple in less than half a year.

You bet the BZ Peak Lord snapped him up as a personal disciple before any of the elders could.

SY gets used to, and even has some fun with BZ's culture. Growing stronger and training his own body to be more efficient is fun! And sparring is even more fun! Messing around with the boys (and girls omg; BZ shijies are as bad or worse than the guys) and causing mischief is fun too! He never got to be an irl gremlin in his past life.

Buuuut he still finds some parts to be too barbaric for his tastes. Just like jokes are only funny when both parties laugh, spars, roughhousing, and pranks are only fun when both sides are into it, okay?

SY never participates in his martial siblings' hazing of the other peaks, preferring to go night hunting instead (such cool monsters!).

Most of the time his fellow disciples understood, since SY is the youngest disciple (13) almost ever to be allowed to go solo night hunting (he's the only young disciple the BZ Peak Lord and elders have agreed won't run out and get himself killed immediately), but it's weird when he never participates in this pastime.

Eventually some jealous, but not overly malicious, disciple decides to heckle and make fun of SY for being too chicken or too much of a goody two-shoes (which is the worst thing you can be in a group of rowdy boys), and SY puts down his monster-spotting journal and raises an eyebrow.

(The kid understood he'd made a huge mistake the instant he sees it.)

SY eviscerates him and all the other jealous or more ill-minded disciples hanging around trying to pressure him into raiding An Ding. They feel like even their ancestors in their graves felt it.

Not to mention, SY is widely known throughout all of Cang Qiong as a Qing Jing disciple clad in a Bai Zhan disciple's skin (and yes the QJ Peak Lord tries to poach him from time to time), so no one else on BZ Peak can match SY's abilities in tongue lashing.

The short (and more pleasantly worded) version of his scathing review of their behavior is that SY wasn't going to stop them from doing it, but he's looked down on them for their infantile hobbies for a while now. Since BZ Peak is known as the strongest in swordsmanship and fighting, how uncouth was it to go around forcing fights on others to prove a point.

Like rogues on the street with no future, they can only prove their worth by beating everyone up and smiling to say, "See? I'm still strong," but the only motivator is truly their own insecurity at their worthlessness.

Trying to tear down others with brute force because they can't compare to their other martial siblings in anything else... what dreadfully dull people. This sort of exercise in futility only serves to form them into those petty tyrants whose only form of existence is to be hated and disgusted by their very presence.

They want him to raid An Ding? Sure. Then let him show them how it's really done.

(Again, this is MY version of SY's tirade. He's really let his inner internet gremlin out in his time at BZ, so HIS words are a lot more crude and uh... yeah. Several of the disciples are now crying from how rudely and thoroughly he tore them down.)

SY takes the whole group to An Ding and grabs an An Ding disciple, asks the terrified disciple if he has time, and then proposes that the An Ding disciple pick something, anything, and they would compete.

The An Ding disciple is confused, but doesn't look like he's gonna be beat up so he goes with it. With a bit of a petty streak, he has this overconfident BZ brat compete with him in inventorying the storehouse the entire peak's been avoiding for ages.

SY: are you serious.

SY, a bit more politely than he is with his BZ martial siblings (although not by much), explains why this is not a good competition, since there will be no definitive criteria to finish by.

Another passing An Ding disciple, an older inner AD disciple, is intrigued and he and SY draft up the rules.

The original An Ding disciple and SY each get half the storeroom. Whoever can produce an organized inventory list that makes it possible for this inner An Ding disciple to confirm the contents in the least amount of time possible is the winner.

SY, with his modern table-making knowledge for clarity and super strength for reorganizing everything easily, smokes the An Ding disciple.

This leads to a bunch of challenges by An Ding disciples (since there's a crowd of them now) who are a little butthurt that a Bai Zhan brute of all people could beat them at what they do best.

SY entertains a few of them (math, accounting, a footrace), before losing to a high-level formation carving contest. He politely thanks An Ding Peak for this informative Peak Exchange and takes his leave.

(SY's competitive streak has been ignited after his years at BZ; he wants to learn formation engraving now!)

Seeing the An Ding disciples frustrated that they could only best SY in a very unfair contest (BZ doesn't teach formations or even stone carving) despite competing in things they were confident of, the BZ disciple tagalongs can't help thinking that SY is SO COOL. (Except for the ones who are bitter and jealous of SY.)

He was right; forget just overpowering their other peak martial siblings, it's way cooler to beat them at things they do best!

Now sure, they can't just march in like their shi(di/xiong) and say, "Pick any contest and I'll win," but with some preparation...

The BZ Peak Lord returns from his latest mission to find his peak... a little different.

The rambunctious little radish heads are... studying things?

It was too much to say that they were "scholarly," but the younger disciples, even the outer ones, are no longer just fighting and causing trouble with no direction.

He looked at SY: "...What did you do?"

"Why does Shizun assume I did anything?"

"..."

SY just chuckled. "Shizun, I know BZ Peak believes that finding the limitation of the flesh and constant tempering among the disciples will cause them to mature and grow as people, but that only works for those who are committed to The Way in cultivation. Even among the elders, who can truly admit to never desiring power over others? A little bit of education outside of constantly fighting won't hurt their chances of becoming righteous cultivators."

BZ Peak Lord: Are you sure you're just 13?

A very young XF/SQH(6), not yet Head Disciple, is surprised a BZ disciple knows modern accounting, and the cumplane "Wait a sec, you're..." meeting happens a lot earlier.

Less SY bullying SQH than normal though, on the account that SQH is 6.

At the age of 16/17 SY starts running around off the peak a lot more, indulging in his desires to make a detailed and thorough monster journal (the beast peak lord has joined the QJ peak lord in trying to poach SY. The BZ peak lord is so tired...)

He gets in a tiff with a group of slvers who were also poaching and ruining a very valuable ecosystem, inadvertently freeing several groups of children who were forced to beg for them.

Uh... crap, he can't just leave them by themselves...

SY irresponsibly just drops them off at Cang Qiong, and although not all of them will be suitable for cultivation, his martial siblings and elders will figure it out.

He books his ass as far away from Cang Qiong immediately after dropping the kids off and sending a transmission, eager to avoid his shizun's constant subtle implications on making him Head Disciple.

SY continues traveling far and wide, only returning years later when he's satisfied. Like a decade later.

SQH is now 19 and Head Disciple of An Ding (and had rescued MBJ earlier than in the book, allowing the kid to avoid HHP altogether), the QJ Peak Lord is smug while showing off her own smart Shen disciple (who recognizes SY as that guy who freed them and brought them to CQ), and his own Shizun had reluctantly appointed a new Head Disciple, who is now obsessed with fighting him.

Aw geez, Shizun, you gave him a complex and now he feels like he has to defeat me to earn the right to be the Head Disciple! That's terrible for his mental state in his formative years!

LQG: Does not actually have a complex, he's just heard about this elusive smart and strong shixiong this entire time and has become inexplicably obsessed with seeing SY for himself. Doesn't help that SY showed up with a pseudo wyvern 4xs SY's size, still alive and trussed up as a gift for the beast peak, slung over his shoulder.

LQG's obsession only grows after fighting SY and he wants to fight all the time, win or lose.

The demon war and TLJ/SXY situation still happens like PIDW, but the story is derailed when LBH makes it to CQM.

SQQ without his Qiu manor arc is a lot less interested in being petty over every little thing (he's still petty, but more for personal amusement now), so he basically doesn't even notice LBH since he's looking for potential scholars.

LBH ends up on Qiong Ding (this absolutely does cause a tiny bit of drama between YQY and SQQ some years later, but more of a jealous wifey spat, nothing major), and SY and SQH are left confused.

With SQQ choosing to keep all the details of his past hidden and pretending he doesn't recognize SY as their rescuer (anyway SY forgot about that incident), the two transmigrators can't figure out what happened.

Eventually they're too busy dealing with their persistent suitors (not that either of them realize) to dig into the situation and everyone lives happily ever after.

(LBH gets a crush on YQY during puberty, but feels terrible ruining the relationship between YQY and SQQ (he didn't, it was the best make up sx YQY had ever had) so he tries to reign it in. No one gets dragged into his dreamscape, and when the Immortal Alliance happens, SQQ is shocked but fights off the Old Palace Master, because dammit that's his husband's favorite disciple, half demon be damned, and only his husband gets to decide what happens to him! LBH gets a Shimu now.)

(MBJ just shows up, makes a fuss, and leaves very anticlimactically. SQH is confused, but a much less bitter MBJ with a hamster supporting him just sneaks over and cuddles him, telling him it was sooo hard and he hates HHP.)

(SY does take to LBH, of course, but he is SO much older than everyone so there isn't even the slightest hint of romantic inclination - from SY's end. LBH is horrified that he's such a horndog (it's ok baby, it's just puberty), and he keeps going after Peak Lords's love interests (but damn Peak Lord Liu is also fine...) ... but without Xin Mo he is able to grow up well and safely, falling in love with Shen Shimu's Head Disciple. Oh yeah he realized he was gay pretty easily when he wasn't confusing kindness for love.)

[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.