Still obsessed with this harem au, so have more. This is going over the main characters in the au. Since this is an au where Shen Yuan was reading a gay harem novel instead of a stallion novel, I'll be noting what they were like in the original story so you know what Shen Yuan assumes about them. Some of the elements are my favorite bits from danmei like Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know and The Demon Lord Only Wants to Follow the Script. Under a cut because this got very long.
Shen Yuan is still our "useless" rich boy, but really he wasn't. He just has a lot of internalized self-hatred since he was born with so many health problems. He was still wildly accomplished, a damn good CEO, and extremely generous with a kind heart. He was definitely a hater and could be an asshole at times, but who isn't? He was coming to terms with not being straight, so his sister recommended a novel she thought he'd like. He did really like it, even the smut though he thought it was badly timed. He rooted for his favorite ships and loathed the villain for forcing these men into his bed. He edited the wiki and was very much a big name fan with all his analysis and the many commissions he bought. He died from rage (meaning his weak heart couldn't take it) when it suddenly ended with a teaser for a shitty game featuring an unnamed demon emperor. He takes it upon himself to fix the story and get his ships together when he becomes the villain a few years before the start of the story.
Yue Qingyuan was trained by his shizun, who bound his soul to his sword when he nearly died. He was in love with his childhood friend Shen Qingqiu, and saved him from a cruel master after they were separated. He brought a young Shen Jiu to his own shizun's friend to train as a cultivator since sects were banned many years before the novel. They met up often and the two of them were the main force behind trying to fix the constant attacks on the human realm by unusually aggressive beasts and starving demons. He was the one who joined forces with other powerful rogues to respond to the needs of the common people that were ignored by the corrupt imperial officials. Sadly, this drew the attention of the emperor, and as the face of their group he had no choice but to turn himself in.
In the original story, he is wed to the villain along with the others and has to hide the existence of the ones who escaped from the husband and the empire at large. The husband forces him to use the sword often to weaken him, and tries to drive a wedge between him and Shen Qingqiu. It works—far too well—and by the end of the story the previously inseparable couple fight often. They both carry scars and face an uncertain future in the merged realms under a demon emperor.
In this story, he and Shen Qingqiu aren't driven apart at all. He can see quickly that Shen Yuan is a genuine, honorable man in a tough situation. He can appreciate his intelligence and falls for him as he sees his kindness. It helps that Shen Yuan reminds him so much of Shen Qingqiu. He finds out that Shen Yuan is the brother of the currently childless emperor, so he heads up the attempts to put his husband on the throne instead. He's very pleased to be first husband, and takes the duties seriously.
Shen Qingqiu was a street child, sold to a cruel master and eventually rescued by his childhood sweetheart, Yue Qi. He had a lot of trauma, but working with the only people he came to trust (the other peak lords) helped bring him out of his shell. He was slowly feeling out adding Liu Qingge to his marriage with Yue Qingyuan, but this was interrupted by the events of the story and left them in a painfully unrequited spot. He offered himself up second when they were caught by the imperial forces and accused of creating an illegal sect. During the course of the story, he was traumatized repeatedly by his evil husband reenacting some of the abuse he suffered as a child. It made him paranoid and lash out, which slowly eroded the relationships he had with the others. He even lashed out at his students, turning from a stern but fair teacher into a monster repeating his own trauma on those around him.
In this, he pushed Shen Yuan often; convinced the man was just lulling then into a false sense of security. Sometimes it was with vicious words, other times he would try to seduce Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan never reacted, missing many clues. He was always extra careful when he had to sell the lie that Shen Yuan was having sex with them all to ruin their cultivation (the emperor seems to think any sex will do it, so even the implication works). He came up with so many ways to make it seem like he was following orders, without ever trying anything in private. He's smart, kind, but has a cutting wit and a bitchy side that appeals to Shen Qingqiu. His tests stop, then shift into him actually attempting to get with the man, but it never works. He's sat in his lap with his robes open and he only played along until that spying servant left! If he tries it without anyone around, he just gets refused! Shen Qingqiu is the one to create and lead the strategy meetings to get into the man's bed properly. He will get what he wants, and what he wants is Shen Yuan crying as he works out a great deal of sexual frustration on his idiot husband. He's not picky about how it happens, just that it does.
Mu Qingfang was trained as a healer by his shizun, who found him as one of the few survivors from a plague. His budding cultivation allowed him to survive, but no one else from his village did. He decided to become a healer, so no other child would suffer as he did. He became one of the greatest to ever live, writing guides and doing everything he could with his limited resources as a rogue. He could have gotten an imperial position, but it would have meant that he could only treat those who could travel to him, or those that he was ordered to help. He instead joined with the rest of the peak lords, and he was one who had heard of cultivation where they all took a generational name, so he suggested it to help give them a group identity. He was generally kind, but he didn't take nonsense from anyone, and was always a bit too excited to do medical experiments. In the original, he was desperately trying to heal the physical and mental wounds his dear friends suffered. He was also in a relationship with both Liu Qingge and Wei Qingwei, though it was never anything formal. He hid his own pain and was showing signs of finally breaking by the end.
He's much happier with Shen Yuan, finally able to help more people and experiment mostly freely. He's a bit of a mad scientist, but he ultimately wants to help so he never goes as dark as it was hinted he might in the original story. He is the one who has the most students as he establishes clinics with cultivators he's trained and tries to train more to replace them. He was originally cautious of Shen Yuan, but fell for him as he realized the man shared his passion for the many plants and creatures of this world. He's gotten the most contact under the guise of 'health checks' which he is more than a little smug about.
Liu Qingge comes from a family of cultivators, but he wanted to progress more and fight more so he followed a powerful rogue who taught him how to fight to his fullest potential. He doesn't talk much and struggles to express himself, so he prefers to show it in actions rather than speech. He's a bit of a romantic, and fiercely loyal even if he has a bad habit of jumping to conclusions and sticking with them for a bit longer than he should. He was vaguely involved with both of the main couples, Qijiu and Mu Qingfang/Wei Qingwei, but he was still settling into it when the group was captured. He chose to give himself up so his sister and other friends could escape safely, and found himself in his own personal hell. He watched everyone suffer, and even started fighting with Shem Qingqiu since he didn't understand why he was acting out and has no idea how to fix it. He thought the man suddenly hated him, which only made things worse for him. Being made into a trophy wife was a nightmare for him, and the stress of it all sent him into frequent, violent qi deviations nearly every time he tried to cultivate that ended with a truly gut wrenching death scene with Shen Qingqiu trying to save him. He snapped out of it long enough to have a touching scene before dying, devastating Shen Qingqiu and leaving the others wondering if he killed Liu Qingge.
He was initially stand-offish with Shen Yuan, and had to be forced to play along by Yue Qingyuan. Shen Yuan saved him during an early qi deviation that would have cost him an eye, which made him finally rethink his initial impression of the man. He slowly falls for this scatterbrained man, returning his fans and getting flustered by the teasing. He tries to talk more when Shen Yuan asks him about monsters, and brings him ones the man mentioned. He was the first to sleep beside Shen Yuan, though nothing else happened. The second tent was just destroyed along with some bedding during a trip with just the two of them. Which meant they had to huddle for warmth and he got to hold his husband all night and keep him safe. He thinks about how well they fit together often, and makes himself flustered.
Wei Qingwei came from a family of blacksmiths, and his talent at cultivation caught the attention of one of the few left who know the ancient arts of forging spiritual swords. He was often scrambling to arm everyone in the group, since the ideal would be to let the sword pick a wielder. He was generally friendly, with a large personality to match his large frame. He had a wicked sense of humor and loved gossip. He drew too much attention, though, and honestly being in one place would give him a better chance to arm their forces so he agreed to give himself up when the group was caught. His hands were badly broken at one point in the story and he wasn't allowed treatment, so he was left with chronic pain that limited his forging and his cultivation. He pushed himself far too hard and was trying desperately to arm everyone enough to stand a chance. It was implied he might never recover at the end of the story, turning him bitter and mournful.
He was seemingly the friendliest to Shen Yuan at the start, but he was really testing the man, even bringing along his special spiritual swords to test whether he was genuine. The swords approved, so he initially chose to keep his head down and focus on the rest of the group. But spending time with Shen Yuan, who was happy to listen to him talk about weapons, slowly warmed him up to the man. He eventually fell in love, and started flirting whenever he could. It's a bit too fun to tease him, Shen Yuan gets so flustered when he's caught staring at his muscles. It's flattering for a man who's used to getting overlooked for the prettier people in their group.
Shang Qinghua was the neglected son of a poorer family who chased cultivation to give himself a better life. He has once been friends with, and loved, an unfavored imperial prince who vanished. He took whatever chance to cultivate he could get. When he met with the group, he wasn't quite sure how he could fit in, but he was good with logistics so that's what he ended up with. He hated how little he was appreciated, but he was the one keeping everyone afloat. Since he kept his friends to himself, he was overlooked and generally felt less close with the other peak lords. He went along with the marriage because he did care about the others who were definitely getting stuck in this marriage, and wanted to spy and use the chance to build them all up. Sadly, he ended up realizing the husband was his childhood friend, who was no longer the person he loved. He ended up taking some of the worst abuse, but downplayed how bad it was. He was implied to be a spy for the ice demons, supposedly the ones behind the increase in monster attacks, but the story line was dropped. In the drafts, he had found that at least one ice demon, Mobei-Jun, was trying to fix the situation so he worked with him. He had also saved the prince as a child, so the ice demon intended to keep him. The author never decided on exactly what would happen, besides that Shang Qinghua was taken by his demonic lover and rescued from his cruel husband.
In this, he's replaced by the author, our dear Airplane, who got stuck as his self-insert. He was born into this, and could only change so much of the story. He's pretty resigned to living through hell, and tells himself at least he gets to indulge all his kinks to get himself through the pain he knows is to come. He doesn't realize things are different until the wedding night, when Shen Yuan tells them all to make it look like the marriage was consummated while he works in his attached office. He knows full well this should be an orgy, dammit! He starts watching and realizes that this is a fellow transmigrator. They talk, and he realizes this is his one fan! Man, he always wanted to show him that the sex position of the week was totally possible, now he can! Too bad for him Shen Yuan really isn't going to bite here. They do work out the plan, and it takes Shang Qinghua the longest to admit he does genuinely love Shen Yuan. Even if he still wants his king, who weirdly hasn't stolen him away yet. Maybe he changed too much? Either way, he does want to get with this and put in the ending he wanted before he was forced to go along with the shitty game idea to keep himself alive. His mind is still a pile of filth though, so he's actively baiting the others into doing the kinkiest shit for his own gratification. Sue him, this story was filled with his taste in men, let him enjoy it.
Mobei-Jun never made an appearance aside from some references in the original. He was in love with Shang Qinghua, who saved him from one of the imperial cultivators as a child. He does still want the man, but he's not going to steal him away if he seems happy. He's just going to add himself to whatever is going on here, it should help him solidify his power so he's happy.
Luo Binghe is a character who was barely named in the original, only lightly touched on along with a few other students. He and Gongyi Xiao were both creeped on by the evil husband, and Shen Qingqiu, his teacher, had to rescue them both. He was implied to develop a crush on his teacher, even as he was the occasional target of Shen Qingqiu's abuse as his mental state deteriorated. Shen Yuan dotes on him, trying to make sure the poor boy ends up happy with the other students he was implied to end up with at the end. He did come up as one of the possible solutions to the issue of the empty demon throne, but nothing was ever confirmed. In the drafts and in the eventual game, it would have been revealed that he was the son of the previous demon emperor, and the evil husband had thrown him into the abyss to die along with a few other students who refused his advances. Losing his dearest friends blackened him, and he came out to take over the demon realm and finally force a peace by merging the realms, causing devastation. He was going to force his former teacher and the other peak lords to marry him and finally fulfill his now twisted love for the ones who took him in.
Since he was never mistreated and doesn't fall into the Abyss, he's a very different character. He is very much in love with Shen Yuan and his husbands, and very eager to join in any way they'd have him. He happily accepts learning under his father to be emperor even if he'd rather stay and become a housewife simply because he was told he'd have a better chance at marrying Shen Yuan that way. He's very salty he won't give Shen Yuan his first heir, but he will accept it so long as he gets the love he craves.
Other characters that would make an appearance like Zhuzhi-Lang, Tianlang-Jun, and most demons were never brought up in the original or dropped quickly. Shen Yuan doesn't know them, so they're wild cards. Shang Qinghua had so many drafts and versions of these characters he's never entirely sure which got used, so he isn't as much help as he wishes he could be.
Shen Yuan eventually discovered that Tianlang-Jun was indeed taken out by imperial cultivators for daring to love Su Xiyan, who was the student of one. That story is mostly like canon SVSSS. The Old Palace Master is the main one, and ultimately behind much of the suffering that the common people go through due to his greed and attempt to consolidate power. Supposedly this is all for the emperor, but he wants to overthrow the man and rule over everything himself so he's been sabotaging everything and ensuring only those loyal to his goals or otherwise useful stay in power.
So Shen Yuan is trying to convince Tianlang-Jun that his love never betrayed him and also stop the Old Palace Master. Meanwhile, his husbands are plotting against his virginity in the background and deciding that marriage alliances would be perfect to fix everything.
