So I was reading the unposted spideryuan post in my drafts and oh my gods I could do so much better?!?! So I did!
I combined the first and second parts because I felt like they'd just work better together. With that out of the way here's the revised spideryuan. The next part should be finished soon hopefully. (If you were tagged and aren't interested in reading the revision, there is a sneak peak of the next part beneath the tag list QwQ)
Shen Yuan felt bad for all of the spiders he'd ever killed in his past life. Though the only reason he feels that way is because he is currently a spider, sitting in a netted cage that's currently being gifted to the scum villain™. Externally he was still, calmly cleaning his front legs as he peered up at Shen Qingqiu.
Judging by his reaction, Shen Qingqiu wasn't too fond of this gift. Why would any spiritual cultivator be happy about inviting a demon into their home?!
(Shang Qinghua, who was standing behind Shen Qingqiu during this meeting with the merchant group, sneezed twice. All eyes snapped to him briefly and he shrank back, rubbing at his nose as he wondered who was talking about him behind his back)
"This is a rare Golden-Silk Orb Weaver spider demon—"
Shen Qingqiu raised a hand. The merchant held his tongue as he extended his hand out and offered the cage to Shen Qingqiu. Shen Qingqiu glared at the cage in disgust and the merchant shrank back.
"You dare to offer me a demon?—"
Shen Qingqiu began, only for Shang Qinghua to butt in. His voice cracked ever so slightly as he spoke up before Shen Qingqiu could outright reject the gift.
"Shixiong, let us not be hasty. Although it's a demon, Spider demon silk is no joke. Certain breeds of spider demons produce the silk that makes Immortal-Binding Cables."
Shang Qinghua began, desperately hoping that Shen Qingqiu would take the spider. It wasn't for some malicious plot or anything, it's just that being able to potentially farm spider silk would help a lot in reducing the sect's spending.
"Even if we don't use it for silk, their venom is potent and Mu Qingfang would certainly be thankful for an opportunity to study and analyze such a rare toxin."
The merchant nodded along in the background, emotionally weeping in relief. Shen Qingqiu's eyes were still narrowed, but it seemed like he was considering the benefits of keeping one around.
"Plus, this one has heard they make great dual cultivation partners—"
Shang Qinghua jolted and stared at the merchant, swiping his hand beneath his own neck in a gesture that screamed "Stop talking Stop Talking!" Shen Qingqiu's fan was already coming out and waving in front of his face as his glare turned venomous.
"A—Ah! I couldn't help but notice that you said the name of the spider was the Golden-Silk Orb Weaver, this one assumes that the silk it spins is golden then?"
Shang Qinghua squeaked before the furrow between Shen Qingqiu's eyebrows could deepen. The merchant wanted to cry and run away, but he instead nodded his head meekly. His earlier momentum and bravado had long since vanished beneath the pressure of Shen Qingqiu's glare.
"Shixiong it'd do you well to accept this gift. Not only are spider demons that weave golden silk rare, but they're also valuable beyond measure. If shixiong is concerned about the potential threat of rearing a demon then I can assure you that Spider demons are harmless."
Shen Qingqiu's patience was wearing thin, he felt like he was being plotted against. He snapped his fan shut and tilted his head up, looking at Shang Qinghua with the same intense stare.
"If shidi is so interested in this matter, then surely he wouldn't mind if this one were to pass this gift off to him?"
Shang Qinghua's eyes lit up and Shen Qingqiu backtracked a bit. Before Shang Qinghua could respond he'd already plucked the cage from the merchant's hand and turned away.
"…If it is as Shang-Shidi says, this one will accept the gift."
Shen Qingqiu began walking away, holding the cage an arms length away. He was only at the meeting because his reaction determined whether or not the sect would collaborate with the merchant group. As infamous as he was, the other peak lords had to admit that Shen Qingqiu had an accurate sense for which suppliers were adequate and which ones would end up harming the sect in the long run.
The merchant and Shang Qinghua gave each other a glance before one of them cleared their throat and began to discuss their future collaboration.
As soon as Shen Qingqiu was out of sight he lifted the cage to eye level and glared at Shen Yuan in there.
Shen Yuan turned away, figuratively sweating as he pretended to busy himself with building a web. He heard Shen Qingqiu snort, clearly unamused. The remainder of the walk home was silent.
Shen Yuan was very unhappy, and it wasn't just because he was the property of the scum villain™. His living conditions were terrible. Apparently Shen Qingqiu didn't deem him worthy of needing a new enclosure or whatever, because it'd been a good week and not once has he left that cramped cage.
Shen Qingqiu wasn't here at the moment though, and Shen Yuan's boldness was ticking up slowly as he paced around his enclosure.
“This sucks, doesn't this guy know how to treat ANY living creatures right??!”
Shen Yuan thought bitterly, cleaning his front legs again. He cleaned it for a while before he paused and stomped all of his feet.
“What the hell am I cleaning?! I haven't been allowed to roam, much less get dirty doing it!!”
The spider instead decided to focus on chewing through the web he'd made yesterday, planning to rebuild it the same way he'd been doing these past few days. With resentment on his mind while he built, Shen Yuan ever so graciously left a nasty message in the weaving of his web.
A crudely webbed "Fuck you" was now scrawled across his web. It was in english of course, he wasn't stupid enough to curse the scum villain™ in a language that he could understand.
With his grievances just barely settled, Shen Yuan tucked his legs beneath him and glared at the door. There was nothing new to see, Shen Yuan had already looked at his surroundings 6 times over. There was literally no place in this room that he hadn't already seen.
With a glance at the red netting that surrounded his cage, Shen Yuan faintly wondered if he could just break through it.
Shen Yuan jolted, looking around for the voice that just spoke to him. He rose up on its back legs, his pedipalps raising threateningly as he whipped around.
"Stop doing that, you’re making me look stupid."
Shen Yuan paused, lowering himself slightly as he stomped his feet on the ground. He stuffed his front leg into his mouth again, cleaning it again as he questioned this mysterious voice.
“I'm you, isn't it obvious?”
"No, I'm me. Do I look stupid enough to believe a disembodied voice that randomly claims I can do something? What, are you going to offer me 'Ultimate power' if I follow your directions?"
"What a paranoid guy, if I did have that ability I most certainly wouldn’t have chosen you. How pathetic of a body stealer do you have to be when you don't even know how to control the body you stole?! Do you get off stroking your own ego? You're not some protagonist. Are you surnamed Luo? Huh?"
If Shen Yuan had a face that could make expressions he would've had a flush that stretched all the way to the back of his nape. Instead, the keyboard warrior settled for cursing the voice out in his head.
"Did you kiss your mother with that mouth?! Better yet, did your mom drop you in your last life?! I just said I'm you, you're cursing at yourself here! Are you too dumb to understand that?!"
Shen Yuan and the voice went back and forth for a bit, arguing with and cursing at one another like they were elementary schoolers that had just discovered curse words.
"Wait, shut up, you distracted me! I am you! To be specific, I am your—our—body’s original owner! When you took my body over, you didn't even do it right."
"What? What does that..?"
"Don't ask stupid questions, you're already irritating me. Is this how you felt when reading Airplane's wife plots? Ah whatever, that's not why I'm here. I'm here because you fused with me when you transmigrated and I’ve decided that if you’re going to use my body, you should at least live up to my expectations!"
"What, so you're going to be my guide? A mentor?"
"No, who would want to guide you? Just think of me as… your post-rebirth cheat. I’ll help you survive long enough that you figure yourself out. As soon as I know you didn’t steal my body in vain, I’ll be out of your probably oily hair."
"So you’re like.. A system?"
"No. I can’t do anything like giving you a golden finger or something absurd like that. I’m just a spider demon, all I can do is teach you how to be a proper spider demon and live up to my expectations. Anyways, you mentioned breaking through the red silk—"
"That's silk? Like spider silk?"
"Don't interrupt me. How will you survive if every time I answer an idiotic question you ask, you respond with three more stupid questions? If I was going to get my body stolen I would’ve preferred it if it was by someone competent. Yes we can break through the netting, I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I didn’t have the ability. Do you know who’s body you’re in? I’m not a normal spider! One claw is enough to get through this flimsy cage! If it were just me in here I'd have already bitten that scummy bastard to death!"
Shen Yuan nodded in agreement, deciding to ignore the jab aimed at him. He switched to cleaning his other leg as he assessed the situation. In short, when he’d been reborn he ended up stealing the body of some innocent spider demon. The spider demon’s consciousness remained, and it has decided that it’ll keep Shen Yuan alive until it’s confident Shen Yuan can.. Live up to its expectations? Whatever those are.
Shen Yuan felt a pang of guilt. He didn’t mean to steal some poor soul’s body—hell, he didn’t even want a new body period! He was a victim in this too! However it was still unfortunate that this “opportunity” was brought forth by sacrificing another.
“Hey! Don’t go killing me off in your head already, I’m still here!”
Shen Yuan didn’t mean to let that slip, but then again it wasn’t like he could just consciously control the direction of his thoughts. For a moment the voice in his head was quiet, the only noise being the soft hum of Shen Yuan’s leg fur vibrating as he cleaned them.
“Not really. In this world, the strong eat the weak. Even if I wasn’t happy about this whole thing at first, it’s not like I can do anything about it. Plus, ever since you settled in my body, I’ve merged with you to an extent. I mean, how else would I know about Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky?”
The voice spoke after a bit, its tone more aloof than before. Shen Yuan could almost picture the youthful appearance of the spider demon shrugging absentmindedly, as if it wasn’t involved in the matter at all. Shen Yuan’s guilt worsened slightly. He’d almost forgotten that this body was barely three weeks old. Despite how fast they matured, it’d still be another two months until Shen Yuan’s body could be considered “grown.”
Shen Yuan sat in silence for a while. Well, if he was going to have a head-roommate then he should at least give it a name, right?
“I have a name! It’s Xitong!”
“…Are you sure you aren’t a system? Where did you even get that name?”
“It’s the first thing I heard when I regained my consciousness!”
“I don’t want to hear anything from ‘Peerless Cucumber’, especially when we both know you’re just average, not even close to being peerless.”
“Moment ruined, I’m done talking to you.”
Shen Yuan was not going to get his junk judged by a creature that wasn’t even born with any junk. What right did a three week old have to judge him? There were bigger things to focus on anyways,
“—Things bigger than your so called peerless cucumber?~”
Xitong chimed in using a sing-song voice. Shen Yuan just bit his tongue and turned his focus back to the issue of his entrapment. According to Xitong, this netting was made out of silk. Forget about ripping through it, wouldn’t this just make for a good snack?
Shen Yuan immediately got to work on stuffing his face with the red silk, swallowing it down and making sure that he didn’t leave a single piece remaining. Once he’d finished chewing through the free nutrients, Shen Yuan crawled to the edge of the cage. With a harsh thud, Shen Yuan dropped down onto the floor.
He was out! He was really out! Shen Yuan looked around the bamboo hut. He was actually surprised that Shen Qingqiu had decided to keep him in his living quarters. It was surprising that Shen Qingqiu didn’t just toss him to some random disciple and forget about his existence. Shen Yuan wasn’t going to forget all of his grievances because of that small detail though. Now that he was out, he took the time to run around. He'd only seen the room from his cage, he had yet to explore at all. So Shen Yuan crawled EVERYWHERE. Leaving webs as he went.
His piled up annoyance from the past few days fueled his petty actions as he gleefully left webs everywhere he knew the scum villain wouldn't like. He was so worked up that he didn't even care that the scum villain™ would probably kill him for this.
In fact, Shen Yuan was so lost in the moment that he didn't notice when the door opened. He also barely noticed Shen Qingqiu shimmying needles from his sleeve and aiming them at him with rage burning in his eyes.
Shen Qingqiu hissed out through gritted teeth as he tossed the first needle at the spider. It missed by a hair's length, and Shen Yuan finally took notice of the scum villain™ standing in the doorway.
"Remember how I said I’d bite him to death? Well that’d only work with a sneak attack. We haven’t matured yet, there’s no way we can take on a cultivator. Your best bet is running, don’t waste my body and die during your first actual encounter!"
Shen Yuan couldn't have agreed more, which is exactly why he bolted out of the room with a surprising burst of speed, right beneath Shen Qingqiu's robes and out of the hut. Shen Yuan just wasn't expecting to see Shang Qinghua and the Peak Lord of the Beast-Taming Peak standing there. It was clear that they were here to check up on him.
Shen Yuan panicked. No way could he get caught here, if he did he was sure he’d be executed on the spot! He turned to back up, but his reaction speed was a bit late. The beast peak lord swiftly entrapped him in a small anti-demon formation and swiftly made their way over.
“FIGHT?! Do you have literally any other ideas… Better ideas??”
“…You can, you up. No can, no bb.”
Tag List (- - ;;;)
@isokayprobably
@meemawdean
@jam13333
@mateosoftblanket
@homestucktrollsfan
@nosugaringreentea
@phoenixnight
@thisdevilthatbythesunset
@princessbelix
@sunccubus
@lionstoothdandelion
@rinnights
@shepardking
@blessedprocrastinator
@theflycatt
@catboi-anon
@cosmic-aquila
@quirky-gardener
@margotstjust545
@breealtair
--
And because I do feel bad for not posting anything new for spideryuan here's a snippet of the next part QwQ
“Explain yourself. What reason do you have to stop me?”
Shen Qingqiu’s patience had already been worn thin. He’d already begun to regret taking the spider demon in the first place. It was unnerving, all it did was stare at him and give him attitude. The bigger part of him told him to kill it, it was his… ‘pet’ after all. Who’s business would it be if he simply decided to kill it? If he’d known how disrespectful this vermin was, he would’ve shoved the damned thing down Shang Qinghua’s throat the moment the rat started to pitch it to him.
Shen Yuan, currently seated in the palm of the Beast-Taming Peak Lord’s hand, spun around and showed Shen Qingqiu his butt. His fears had been tossed out of the window because he was running on the logic of, ”If we are going to die, I might as well be as haughty as I want. That’s befitting of a spider demon… right?”
Shen Qingqiu’s brow twitched, and Shen Yuan could feel that piercing gaze locked onto him. Rather than backing down Shen Yuan just started cleaning his legs again, feigning nonchalance as he removed the dust clinging to his leg hairs.
“Chen Lu, this matter is not one that concerns you. Release the demon.”
Shen Qingqiu’s words felt like a rain of acid to Shen Yuan. With a slight nervousness Shen Yuan peeked up at the peak lord holding him. Chen Lu–using the characters of ‘Morning Dew’–the ever so androgynous beast-taming peak lord didn’t make any move to release Shen Yuan. Rather than that, they just stared at Shen Qingqiu with their steady stance.
“Shen-Shixiong, this creature is just a child protesting against unfair living conditions. What reason do you have to execute it?”
Chen Lu’s voice was somewhat quiet, as if they were taking care not to startle Shen Yuan. Shen Qingqiu’s fan snapped open, waving in front of his face as he stared at Chen Lu with those sharp eyes. What reason did Chen Lu have to question what he was doing with his belongings? Was it Chen Lu who owned the demon? No.
“What reason do I need to kill a demon? It couldn’t be that you’re standing here to protect the demon that has defiled my living quarters?”
Shen Qingqiu snapped his fan shut abruptly, Xiu Ya appearing by his side in a moment. Chen Lu was in a somewhat difficult position now. If they stood their ground here too much, then there’s a chance that they would be accused of colluding with demons. Even if everyone believed Shen Qingqiu to be a sleaze-ball, they were still well aware of how Shen Qingqiu felt about demons and those colluding with them.
Shang Qinghua spoke up just as tensions were reaching an all time high. He shrank back as both gazes landed on him. Chen Lu looked interested in whatever Shang Qinghua was going to say, and Shen Qingqiu looked like he would skin Shang Qinghua alive if whatever he said next wasn’t along the lines of “Shen-Shixiong you should absolutely kill that demon. I was wrong for pushing you to take it.”
