Shen Yuan dies and transmitigates into a strange world as a malformed young snake demon. That’s fine, he thinks, as he adjusts himself to his new form, to his new life. Being a deformed snake demon could be interesting. And it’s not like he has to be deformed forever. Being a demon means the other world is xianxia after all. There’s surely a way to fix his form. He’ll find it and become stronger.
So he slithers his way through the forest of his second birth and hunts and grows and searches for a settlement of any sort where he can gather information. He needs to get his non existent hands on books really, anything that’ll tell him about this new world he’s entered. But first, he must find something other then snakes and prowling beasts.
Time passes. Years probably, but Shen Yuan doesn’t know for sure. Telling the passage of time is hard as a snake. It all seems to just… blur together. The sky doesn’t change. It’s always a perpetual twilight, the sky dyed a vivid red as what looks to be dancing strings of light swim across the stars. An unnatural beauty, seemingly unchanged by time.
And then, one day, a man approaches him. He calls himself Tianlang Jun and says he is Shen Yuan’s maternal uncle. He’s been searching for his nephew for years, following rumors of a snake with the crest of a heavenly demon upon its brow.
The name and term sound vaguely familiar, but Shen Yuan brushes it off. A coincidence, surly. All demon names sound the same after all.
Tianlang Jun asks Shen Yuan for his name, so he tells him. It is his own name after all. It’s not like he transmitigated into a named character.
“How auspicious!!” Tianlang Jun exclaims upon hearing this. “A heavenly demon named after the abyss? This will certainly set the demon courts on edge! How fun! Shenyuan Lang will suit you.”
Momentarily, Shen Yuan thinks of correcting him, considers pointing out that those are the wrong characters, wrong pronunciation even (Tianlang Jun must have heard wrong through the hissing sound in Shen Yuan’s accent that Shen Yuan can never seem to shake), but really, what does it matter. This is a new life after all, and he is a demon now. If the name meaning abyss will suit a demon more, what’s in a name after all. Shenyuan Lang it is.
Tianlang Jun offers his nephew his blood to correct Shenyuan Lang’s deformities. Blood mites, he tells his nephew. Shen Yuan tilts his head at that. Again, it sounds… familiar. But he brushes it off and agrees. He has been searching for a means to get hands after all. It’s easier to read books when on possesses thumbs.
So Shen Yuan gains a humanoid form and a family and follows his new uncle to a demon castle where Shen Yuan discovers his new uncles position in the world. A demon emperor? Really? This man? This man that rambles about shitty pornos he’s been enjoying?? (Shen Yuan judges his uncle for claiming these books are good; they’re clearly not!! And Shen Yuan will argue with anyone that says otherwise, even a demon emperor!! He ignores the fact that his uncle is delighted by this and feigns disinterest when Tianlang Jun brings home a new volume.)
Shen Yuan begins to devour the imperial palaces vast library, but the more he reads, the more a sinking sense of horror swirls in his chest. The names in the bestiaries give him a long pause. He recognizes those abysmal names. He knows them. Shen Yuan curses. He’s transmitigated into some random NPC of Proud Immortal Demon Way. One that never even made the pages of that accursed book.
It occurs to him then, in the low light of the library as he stares down at the pages that damned him, that he’s a heavenly demon. Half of one at least, and deformed to boot. But he’s a heavenly demon. There were no other heavenly demons in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Only Luo Binghe. Over the rushing in his ears, Shen Yuan realizes he must be an NPC that dies before the protagonist arrives. So must Tianlang Jun.
Tianlang Jun. Shen Yuan dimly recalls that he does know that name. It was familiar when he first heard it, but he’d brushed it aside. But now? Knowing where he is? Now he knows. Tianlang Jun is Luo Binghe’s father. The one that is sealed away beneath a mountain before Luo Binghe is even born for starting a war with the human realm.
Shen Yuan thinks back to his uncle, the strange, ridiculous man obsessed with humans and trashy romance novels. Imagining him trapped, helpless beneath a mountain doesn’t sit well with him. And the story? The one about Tianlang Jun waging a way?? Something about it doesn’t sit right. Tianlang Jun loves humans. He adores their culture. He would never willing start a war and risk harming his access to their world. Something about the story doesn’t add up.
Darkly, Shen Yuan remembers the fate Luo Binghe has in store for himself. Pushing the book he was reading aside, Shen Yuan vows to stop that fate from coming to pass. Both for Binghe and Tianlang Jun. Tianlang Jun loves his nephew. He would adore his son. And Binghe deserves to have family and be loved.
Shen Yuan will change the story and he will castrate Shen Qingqiu for the crimes he was going to commit. Even if the man doesn’t touch Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan remembers how foul the man was. He’s sure something else will require castration.
But first, Shen Yuan needs to get stronger. He must. For Luo Binghe. For Tianlang Jun. For Shen Qingqiu. Castration is important business after all.
Shen Yuan returns to devouring the library with renewed vigor, searching for some way he can improve himself. Shen Yuan knows he’s not a full heavenly demon. His deformities still show despite the blood mites. He might be humanoid now, but he’ll never look fully human in this form. And to find Shen Qingqiu? To stop Tianlang Jun’s imprisonment? Shen Yuan needs to infiltrate the human realm.
He’s not sure yet exactly how he’ll do it, but he needs to find something that will fix him, make him stronger, hide his demonic nature, so he can save them all. And murder a man. He deserves it after all. As a treat for the crimes he must suffer through due to that hack authors terrible writing. This is somehow all his fault, Shen Yuan knows it.
As Shen Yuan reads, he starts to recall a legendary all cure that was mentioned in passing during the abyss arc. It was a wasted world building moment, a discarded plot point, a whole that had driven Shen Yuan nuts when he read it. The silver-gold fiery feather of Abyssal Heavenly Sunkisses Soulbird was said to burn those that consumed it down to their soul and remake them into the perfect version of themselves, healing any ailment in the process.
Of course, there was a price. As the legends said, flying too close to the sun can burn you and melt you away until you fall into a sea of nothingness. If your soul cannot bear the weight of truth, you will turn to ash with not even a soul to reincarnate.
You also have to, you know, fight the bird to get a feather. It’s not like the feather is just freely given.
Shen Yuan had found the creature fascinating.
So of course, because Airplane can never give Shen Yuan nice things, the plot was dropped, the artifact was never searched for, and instead Luo Binghe saved the day with more terrible papapa. Neither the feather nor the bird had ever been mentioned again.
(Shen Yuan wasn’t still bitter, thank you very much.)
Well, at least Shen Yuan knows he won’t be stealing what’s rightfully Binghe’s away from him. He’d never even looked for it after all. Shen Yuan should be able to track it down. He knows the general layout of the Abyss and the approximate location of where the Feng Huang Mountain Range is even if Luo Binghe never traversed it. He did pass it by after all.
Shen Yuan will find it, eat it, and make himself whole. He’s a very honest person after all. Even to himself. The feather will be a piece of cake.
So with a plan in mind, Shen Yuan spends the next few weeks finding every book in the library about the abyss to read and brush up on his abyssal knowledge. He’s not Luo Binghe after all. There’s no way he can survived the abyss without serious prep work. So he prepares and he plans, drawing map upon map, writing notes upon notes.
And finally, when he’s ready, Shen Yuan approaches his uncle and tells him that he must leave for a test of strength. That is traditional after all. For young demons to go out on their own for a time, brave the world and fight for their lives in the wilderness to prove their strength and prove themselves an adult.
If Shenyuan Lang is to ever be accepted by the demon court as a prince, he must take the test eventually.
Shen Yuan does not mention where he plans on going of course, or what he’ll do. No need to worry his uncle. Shen Yuan has this in the bag.
Tianlang Jun gives him his blessing and Shen Yuan departs with qiankun pouches full of supplies as he makes his way to the closest abyssal tear. They might appear in random locations, but in the demon realm, they’re known to stick around for weeks before closing back up. Shen Yuan made close note of all the close abyssal tears nearby before he left and there’s one that recently opened not that far away.
Finding it, Shen Yuan takes a deep breath and descends into the abyss.
It is… surprisingly not as hard as he remembers reading. Sure, the monsters are terrifying and strong and could kill him with a single blow—probably, maybe… but they’re all so… predictable??
Shen Yuan is very proud of himself for the progress he’s made and the time he’s making. He quickly oriented himself when entering the abyss and has a good idea where he is. Sure, the abyss changes and rearranges itself from time to time—well, all the time really—but it’s not hard to realize what domain he’s in and what direction to go to get to the next one to hope over to another. And while he can’t predict exactly what domain will appear next, he does know that the same domain never appears in the same place twice and it’s not hard to just camp out and wait for a preferable domain shift to take the place of the last. He can’t stay in one place too long, but he can for a shift or two. He’ll eventually get to the mountain range.
And he does. He comes across the Feng Huang Mountain Range after what he thinks is a month. Maybe two? It can’t possibly be more, he’s sure. He plunges into the mountains looking for the peak the Sunkiss Soulbird is said to make its nest.
After many many wrong turns, Shen Yuan makes his way to the top of the peak where the soulbird resides. He prepares for battle and readies the temporary weapon he’d taken from his uncles vaults. But— when he arrives, weapon in hand, the soulbird just looks at him, tilting its head to the side.
It opens its beak, its eyes boring into him. “Speak your truth, World Wanderer.” Shen Yuan feels like its stare is staring straight into the core of his being, seeing him exactly for what he is, who he is. Soulbird indeed.
Feeling his mouth go dry, Shen Yuan licks his lips and replies wearily, “I’ve come for a feather to remake myself; may I have one?”
The bird just stares. It stares so long, unmoving, that Shen Yuan worries time has somehow stopped. He holds his breath.
“We’ll see, wanderer,” the bird says finally. “If you can battle me, you may have a feather.”
Shen Yuan nods, and readies his weapon. Since Luo Binghe never fought this creature, he doesn’t have much details on it; he doesn’t know how to fight it. But he’s sure he’ll figure something out.
But the bird just coos a laugh. It’s… laughing at him?
“You fight with knowledge in my domain, with truth, snake child,” the bird tells him, amused. “Not with mortal weapons.”
Shen Yuan drops his blade, startled. Well, okay then. Knowledge work. He can do knowledge. He has a lot of that after all. And truth. He’s good at that too. So he nods and asks, “Then how does the battle begin?”
So the bird explains. Shen Yuan must tell the bird who he is at the center of his being. He must expose himself to the soulbird in his entirety. He must prove that he understands himself.
Again, Shen Yuan nods and starts to talk about himself, but he hasn’t even made it more than a sentence when the bird begins to cluck another laugh.
It says with an amused tilt of its head, “Not with words, wandering child. I can see you. I’ll know if you know yourself.” The bird inclined its head to the flare obsidian top of the mountain. “Sit, meditate, think on who you are. And you must stay there, meditating, until you know.”
“You should know,” the bird says, “once you sit, you can not get back up until you pass. Many have Easter their lives away trying to know themselves. They failed, and they died right here.” The soulbird appraises him with a thoughtful eye. “Leave now little one, I fear this trial is not for you. If you wish to live, go home.”
Shen Yuan bristles with indignation. He knows himself! How could this puffed up chicken suggest otherwise? Shen Yuan is a very self aware person, thank you very much. Shen Yuan gives the soulbird a sour look and marches forward, depositing himself on the ground in front of the nest. He’ll show that bird, he thinks. He closes his eyes and starts to meditate, searching himself for who he is. This will be easy.
It’s not easy apparently. Shen Yuan doesn’t know how much time passes. He doesn’t know how the world moves around him. He only knows the power swirling about him, the depths of his soul as he searches, the burning gaze of the soulbird’s eyes upon him.
He meditates and he meditates. He thinks of his past life, of the trials he’s faced in this one. He thinks of his family, both old and new. Of the girl in his first life who once kissed him briefly after class in middle school and how he didn’t particularly care of it.
It’s fine, he tells himself. That’s normal. He was only 12 when it happened. It’s normal for children to not like kissing. He’s sure if he had another chance, now as an adult, it would be fine. He’d like it now, surely.
He keeps sitting there. And sitting there.
He starts to wonder if maybe the soulbird was right. If maybe he should have listened and left when he had the chance. But it’s too late for that now. He can’t leave until he knows himself.
And he has to know himself. He has to.
Luo Binghe deserves a life without Shen Qingqiu in it. Tianlang Jun deserves a life free to love his family.
Shen Yuan will learn himself. He will understand. Maybe he didn’t when he sat day. He knows that now. Recognizes the arrogance of his conviction for what it was. Foolish.
The soulbirds eyes burn into him.
Okay, so what does he think he knows about himself? Shen Yuan thinks about his life once more. What about himself is he not seeing? What has he not considered?
He thinks and he thinks. He tears himself apart and puts himself back together. Shuddering breath after shuddering breath, Shen Yuan pushes himself through contemplating every aspect of his life. What he really wanted. What he really felt. Often, he wanted to turn from it, turn from himself. He didn’t know if he liked what he saw about himself. Wasn’t sure what to make of the things he was starting to understand.
Was this really who he was??
A breath huffs on his face and Shen Yuan’s eyes startle open. He stares into the burning coals staring back at him. The soulbird tilts its head. “That’s good enough,” it says. “You’re lucky, little one,” it clucks. “You’re long lived. Otherwise, you’d have died twice over by now. Fate must love you.”
Startled, Shen Yuan wonders how long he’s been here, kneeling on the hard ground in front of the bird, but he pushes the thought aside for now and asks, “so I can have a feather then?”
Instead of answering, the bird twists around and tugs a tail feather out, dropping it into Shen Yuan’s lap. “Eat wanderer, and be made new.”
Shen Yuan stares at the feather for a moment. He feels tired. But slowly, he picks the feather up and puts it in his mouth.
The moment the feather touches his tongue, it burns. Everything burns. It feels like the universe is unraveling him down to his very core before forcibly rebuilding him piece by excruciating piece.
After what feels like forever, Shen Yuan comes back to himself. Blinking, he shudders himself to his feet and stumbles away from the soulbird. The sound of the birds laughter filled farewell echos after him as he bites out a thank you and a short bow and tumbles his way back down the mountain.
He feels different, but without a mirror, all he can do is look at the smooth skin on his hands in wonder. No scales. No imperfections. The feather must have worked as was said.
He’s thankful. He can finally save his family.
At the base of the mountain, Shen Yuan glances back up, before quickly looking away. The mountain reforged him. But now it’s time to go home.
He fights his way back out of the Abyss. It’s changed since he last passed through these domains, but somewhere, he’ll find another rift.
At some point, he glances in a crystal clear lake and takes stock of himself. He’s startled. The feather did change him. He’s a dragon. He’s seen them plenty in fanart online during his first life.
How is a dragon the perfect form of a snake?? That makes no sense? What the fuck airplane?!! Newly aquired self awareness of not, Shen Yuan is going to strangle that man if he ever meets him, he fumes.
…at least he looks neat, he thinks as he admires the horns atop his head.
Eventually, Shen Yuan finds a rift and finds his way back to his uncles castle. The guards startle and stare at him in surprise, but let him pass when he flashes a glare their way with the flashing mark of a heavenly demon upon his brow.
He makes his way to the throne room.
His uncle startles when he sees him, surprise taking over his features. The first thing that leaves his mouth is, “Shenyuan Lang! You’re alive!?”
It turns out it’s been a little over two hundred years since Shen Yuan left on his test of strength. Possibly three, but who’s counting. Shenyuan Lang had been presumed dead after the first fifty.
Bowing, Shen Yuan tells his uncle of his adventure into the Endless Abyss, causing the demon court to stir with surprise. He continues on to tell of his encounter with the Abyssal Heavenly Sunkissed Soulbird and how he had spent what seems to have been centuries learning of himself, all for the prize of becoming whole.
Tianlang Jun welcomes him home with enthusiasm and boasts to the court how his nephew over came the hardest possible trial of strength any demon could have overcome, conquered the Endless Abyss, and came out the other side a full heavenly dragon. This is a monumental achievement and will certainly go down in history. Tianlang Jun calls for a feast in celebration.
Later, after the celebration has died down and Tianlang Jun and Shen Yuan have retired to a sitting room to catch up over tea, Shen Yuan tells his uncle of his plans. He’d crafted it while traversing the Endless Abyss.
He plans to disguise himself as a human and establish a cultivation sect near Cang Qiong along the Luo River to infiltrate the mortal realm and establish better trade route for the demon realm as well as relay information.
Tianlang Jun lights up in excitement over the prospect of visiting humans and eagerly agrees as long as he comes along as well. He just has to get better access to the human realms yellow books. They have the best taste when it comes to writing.
Shen Yuan snorts, but doesn’t contradict the man. He spent long enough self reflecting to know he has no room to disagree. Well, maybe for fun, to tease his uncle… but he loves those yellow books in all their terribleness too much himself.
Shen Yuan and Tianlang Jun set out a short while later for the human realm, where Shen Yuan insists they travel along the Luo River in search of a mountain to reside on. They find a good one, uninhabited by any immortals and begin to make camp.
They’ll grow rare herbs and spiritual plants here, Shen Yuan decides. They can even get abyssal plants and demon realm plants to grow if they engrave the arrays correctly into greenhouses to mimic the right climate. They’ll become known as the best sect to supply rare materials. Maybe they’ll even branch out to pill making with furnaces.
In all the thousands upon thousands of words Shen Yuan read in Proud Immortal Demon Way, he doesn’t remember a single sect specializing in pill creation. Somehow, mysteriously, the pills always seemed to just.. show up when needed. But no one was really known for their creation of them.
It’s a safe and solid specialty to establish themselves as important and make the greater sects rely on them.
If he plays his cards right, Shen Yuan can sell his pills and herbs to Qian Cao Peak at Cang Qiong and establish close ties. Then he’ll have an excellent view of the goings on. He’ll know exactly when Shen Qingqiu shows up to start his reign of terror.
Maybe… maybe castration is extreme without the man doing any crimes, but Shen Yuan can at least make sure he doesn’t become a Peak Lord. No one deserves his cruel teaching.
Shenyuan Lang and Tianlang Jun are names known throughout the realms. The humans will get suspicious if they choose names too close to them. So with the help of his uncle, they craft aliases: Shen Zhuzhi and Luo Tian. They can’t go around with the exact names of the demon emperor and renowned demon prince after all.
Shen Yuan diligently gets to work establishing their sect with building help from demons that sneak in out of view of humans. Lots of greenhouses, lots of room to grow their empire. To fill the greenhouses with plants, Shen Yuan and his uncle adventure out to find cuttings to transplant. They explore all over, buying plants up from merchants and sourcing a lot of them themselves. They collect and they explore.
The more they collect though, the more someone has to stay behind at the sect to make sure everything is taken care of properly. They can’t expect demons to just know. Someone has to teach them.
Tianlang Jun finds the exploring more interesting than the cultivating at the mountain. So Shen Yuan tends to stay behind while his uncle adventures out for more plants (and books he sneaks back into their growing library of trashy porn).
While out one day, Tianlang Jun runs into a beautiful cultivator from Huan Hua Palace. Su Xiyan she introduces herself as. Tianlang Jun is instantly smitten and ventures out more and more on “official” business as he says, to make close ties with Huan Hua.
It’s vital, he insists to his nephew. Think of all the information they could get from having an inside connection with Huan Hua. Cang Qiong’s not the only righteous sect of importance after all. Shen Yuan gives him a judgmental state, less out of desire to stop his uncle (he’s very excited that Luo Binghe will surely arrive soon after all), and more out of disbelief that his uncle can sprout such lies and expect his nephew to believe them.
Tianlang Jun gets closer and closer with Su Xiyan and subsequently Huan Hua Palace as time goes on.
By this point, Shen Yuan’s machinations to establish their sect by the Luo River as an important trade partner have come to fruition, and their little sect has become a prominent up and rising new sect. They might not be considered a great sect just yet, but no one can say they aren’t important. They are now producing most of the medicinal herbs and spiritual plants in the jianghu after all.
So no matter how much the Old Palace Master dislikes this Luo Tian and his flirtations towards his prized disciple, he can’t get rid of him. He can’t even insult him really. He wouldn’t dare offend the Luo Shan Sect. He’ll just have to bide his time and keep searching for dirt on them until he can prove that that Luo Tian is up to no good.
While hanging around Huan Hua Palace to flirt with Su Xiyan more, Tianlang Jun hears rumors of a young ice demon that’s been taken captive. Investigating, Tianlang Jun finds that the youngest Mobei prince has been imprisoned beneath Huan Hua, in the water prison. Infuriated, he convinces Su Xiyan to help him sneak in and remove the child from the awful conditions. He’s only four after all, he tells Xiyan. It’s just a baby. How can a baby be evil?
Wisking the child back to the sect, Shen Yuan takes one look at the terrified child, and upon hearing that the child’s uncle, Linguang Jun, had abandoned him in the human realm, he decides then and there that the child is staying with him at the sect.
Tianlang Jun points out that this is a prince of the North; the Mobei Jun will want his son back, but Shen Yuan points out that Tianlang Jun is the demon emperor. He can make a deal with Mobei Jun to foster the child and educate him to establish diplomatic ties. They wouldn’t be stealing him; they’d be hosting him for educational purposes until the boy is of age. Surly Mobei Jun will be thrilled to have closer ties with the Demon Emperor of the South.
And besides, if Mobei Jun is still not convinced by closer diplomatic ties, Tianlang Jun can ensure this child’s safety until adulthood. That’s practically a guarantee that his heir will survive against assassination attempts.
Tianlang Jun gives Shen Yuan an amused smile, as if he thinks Shen Yuan is naive, but nods and says he’ll make it happen. Shen Yuan never learns what Tianlang Jun says to convince Mobei Jun to allow them to foster his son, but the young Mobei prince becomes a permanent resident and the first disciple of Luo Shan Sect. Though, as he cannot hide his appearance, no one is allowed to see him.
As Shen Yuan is taking care of a four year old, he asks Tianlang Jun to take over the negotiations for their next business deal. It’s not a very important one, but it could be useful. The merchant family known as the Qiu’s is known for exchanging cultivation goods. If they can make a deal with them, perhaps they can acquire furnaces that are traceable. They can get some from the demon realm, but it’ll be suspicious if their sect starts selling pills without a clear explanation of where they got the furnaces to create them.
(Yes, Shen Yuan is fully aware this is the xianxia equivalent of money laundering; sue him.)
So Tianlang Jun visits the Qiu’s. As he meets with the family, he notices a young servant with shaking hands. The boy doesn’t say anything unless spoken to. His expression is neutral if one looks directly at him. But if Tianlang Jun watches from the corner of his eye, he can see the child sneering at his master with glittering hate in his eyes.
Fascinating. That’s certainly some expression.
Tianlang Jun passes the child in the hall at one point and before the child realizes Tianlang Jun is there, Tianlang Jun can hear him biting out quiet insults under his breath. This child is amusing.
Tianlang Jun decides right there and then that he’s getting that child in the deal. He has cultivation potential after all. And Luo Shan Sect does need some human disciples. It’ll be suspicious if they never show any disciple faces. And what better way to get a disciple than to barter for the snarkiest, meanest looking child Tianlang Jun has ever seen. He’s perfect!
Back at the negotiation table, Tianlang Jun asks for the slave as part of the deal. He amuses me, he tells them. The child stiffens, but says nothing.
Qiu Jianluo, the eldest son of the Qiu family, is against the idea, but Tianlang Jun insists there’ll be no deal unless he has the child. The master of the house, Qiu Jianluo’s father agrees to the deal leaving his son to fume quietly. It’s just one slave after all.
Tianlang Jun departs the Qiu’s with a successful business deal for furnaces and a newly aquired disciple suspiciously trailing behind him.
Shen Yuan almost has an apoplectic fit when he sees his uncle return with another child. “I sent you for furnaces.” He says, his eyebrow twitching. “Where did you get a chile??” He doesn’t voice his suspicion that his uncle kidnapped this one too. He doesn’t have to. Tianlang Jun knows and grins unrepentantly at him.
Calming himself down, Shen Yuan welcomes the boy warmly and asks for his name. Shen Jiu, the child introduces himself as.
“Like black jade,” Shen Yuan notes, appraising the boys pitch black eyes. “It suits you.” The child stares up at him with wide eyes and doesn’t say anything. And so, Shen Jiu becomes the second disciple at Luo Shan Sect. Though since the Mobei prince is still obviously a demon (but improving at his human disguise!) and can’t leave the sect just yet, Shen Yuan decides that Shen Jiu will be recognized at the first.
After Shen Jiu settles in and has warmed up to his Shizun, Shen Yuan begins taking Shen Jiu along with him when conducting business. He wants to make sure people see that he finally has a disciple after all.
He is, therefore, with Shen Yuan when Shen Yuan visits Qian Cao to exchange the latest shipment of medical herbs and spiritual herbs with the Peak Lord. As they sit there discussing the details, a Qiong Ding disciple walks past the open door on the way to the infirmity for a minor injury and Shen Jiu, who was quietly sitting at Shen Yuan’s side observing, jerks to his feet, eyes wide.
“Qi-ge?” he calls, stumbling to the door, ignoring his Shizun’s call of surprise.
The Qiong Ding disciple freezes and turns around, double back slightly to look in the room with a stricken expression. “Xiao Jiu??”
The two boys tumble over themselves to each other. The older boy seems to be crying. Shen Jiu does too for that matter, but Shen Yuan, who’s watching the teary embrace in surprise, knows better than to say so. He likes not being stabbed.
After a long moment where the two seem to be speaking to each other in rushed half sentences, Shen Jiu turns to his Shizun and the watching Qian Cao Peak Lord and apologizes for the interruption. He introduces the other boy as Yue Qi, his sworn brother, who he hasn’t seen in some time.
Understanding settles on Shen Yuan and he smiles pleased. This is good. Shen Jiu is happy. His sweet, snarky disciple gets a reunion with his dearest friend. The fact that Shen Yuan now has a perfect reason to visit more often to keep an eye out for that dastardly Shen Qingqiu doesn’t hurt either. He can’t keep brothers away from each other entirely after all!!
Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu return to the Luo Shan sect in high spirits, the latter for knowing his Qi-ge is safe and alive, and the former for the progression of his plot!!
Now he just needs to wait and watch. He will save Tianlang Jun and Luo Binghe from their cruel fates!!
He’s set his chess board perfectly for the next stage of his subterfuge: stop Tianlang Jun’s imprisonment and prevent Shen Qingqiu from becoming a Peak Lord!
And as time passes and the An generation of Cang Qiong prepares for their ascension and they begin to name their successors, Shen Yuan is in for a rude awakening when the Qing generation is named and Qing Jing Peak’s upcoming Peak Lord is named Ming Qingqiu. And all Shen Yuan can do is sit there poleaxed and perplexed, wondering where the fuck Shen Qingqiu went.
No amount of centuries spent self reflecting can fix dumbassery after all.
