I was just struck with a thought.
Like, I love, love, stories where sqq is somehow put in any shape or form into the Endless Abyss.
Is he a cultivator ? A demon lord ? Did he fall with Luo Binghe ? Have they never ever met ? Is he a sentient incarnation of this terrifying place ? Xin mo ? A monster cultivating a body ? A feral modern gremlin ?!
And ! The Endless Abyss is such an insane setting ?! Everything is literally trying to end you. Your goal has to be to survive another day. There is no sky. The floor is actually lava. The rain is acid.
(I'm probably mixing canon and fanon here, but bear with me.)
Is sqq studying the place ? Is he somehow charming every single deadly beasts or plants in there Disney-princess-style ? Or is he feared and respected ? Has he decided to survive this place out of sheer spite ?!
Yes. Amazing. 10/10.
But then, I was re-reading a later part of the story and...
Wait. What if. Sqq, legendary guardian of the Holy Mausoleum.
The place is full to the brim with lethal mechanisms, deadly artifacts and poisonous plants. (Less monster fanboying to be had at first glance but we can solve that ! Who says some great lords didn't want their terrifying wild beasts pets to be entumbed with them ? Who says it's not a great proof of power to have some Red Star Scorpion-Pachyderme guard your resting place ? Someone has to take care of them ! The poor babies were left alone in there ! That's animal abuse ?! Airplane you hack !!)
In the demon realm, nobody knows what The Guardian is or how long he has actually been there. Some think his existence a mere legend.
Rumour has it he never leaves the place but rarely shows himself, even to emperors. That he knows his way through all the burial rooms of the mausoleum and their peculiarities. Deadly flora, icy tombs, blind corpses,… They say the very place bows and bends to his will.
He is either a warped horrifying figure, neither human nor demon, or an unrivaled beauty.
Only one thing is known with certainty : Enter the Holy Mausoleum to desecrate a burial room, and not even ashes will remain of you.