Work Text:
“Dumbfuck author. Dumbfuck novel!”
These were Shen Yuan’s last words. And rather unusual though they were as last words go, no one who knew the circumstances under which they were uttered could possibly begrudge him for them.
You see, Shen Yuan was a big webnovel addict, an otaku, as they say.
For the better part of the last two years, he had been chasing this novel Proud Immortal Demon Way by author Beating the Airplane Toward the Sky, waiting up to midnight, sometimes even into the wee hours of the morning for every latest chapter, dutifully purchasing VIP access. Not only that, he was a denizen of the comment section - one who wrote thousands of words worth of comments with concrit and meta for every plot turning point and worldbuilding titbit so sparingly sprinkled by the author.
Now the novel had ended, not a single one of them had been revisited.
Proud Immortal Demon Way was a long, epic work right? In much the way that many such webnovels were, it had to entice readers into following the story, willingly emptying their pockets along the way. There had been foreshadowing, there had been Chekhov's proverbial guns on the walls and also various many-layered mysteries.
Now with the novel concluded, the culprits of several massacres were yet unfound, there were multiple remarkable female characters promised entry into the harem - this was a stallion novel after all - who never appeared again, and that whole bunch of characters said to be so awesome who were simply never given any screentime. PIDW’s length was impressive. But that was increasingly feeling like the only thing it had going for it. Length was no excuse for this many plot holes.
In a fit of restlessness and frustration, Shen Yuan clicked into Airplane’s author page, ready to yell at him through the screen.
Immediately, the link to a new novel’s page caught his eye.
《重启仙途》
作者：向天打飞机
灵异神怪 | 仙侠修真 | 连载 | 0字
最新章节：____江澄是云梦江氏宗主江枫眠的小儿子。
有娘亲，有姐姐，还有位最好的兄弟。他们从小穿一条裤子长大，世人都称之为云梦双杰。可天不作美。
本该毫无悬念的一生，一夜之间没了。
云梦江氏被屠尽，双亲离世，姐姐，兄弟凶多吉少。而他，一身引以为傲的金丹修为...毁了。可虽不作美，天也无绝人之路。既留得一命，那他今日所受的就要一一奉还。
[Restart the Immortal Path]
Author: Beating the Airplane Toward the Sky
Tags: #supernatural, gods and monsters #xianxia cultivation | Status: Ongoing, 0 Words
Latest chapter: ___Summary:
Jiang Cheng is the youngest son of Jiang Fengmian, the head of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. He had a mother, a sister, and a best friend . They grew up together, sharing everything, and were known to the world as the Yunmeng Twin Heroes.
But the Heavens loved their cruel games.
A future that should have been without doubt was destroyed in a single night.
The Yunmeng Jiang Clan was slaughtered, his parents died protecting it, and his sister and best friend faced uncertain fates. His golden core, the source of his cultivation and pride was destroyed.Yet, despite the cruelty of the Heavens, it never walls you into a dead end. Surviving with his life, Jiang Cheng vowed to repay all the suffering he endured.
A. New. Novel.
That was why Airplane had ended things off in PIDW so shoddily???
An abrupt, nonsensical happy ending, no apology — not even a word of explanation, and then BAM! NEW NOVEL.
Shen Yuan was so angry, it felt like he was seeing double. It felt like his soul needed to get out to another dimension to scream. He wanted to reach through the screen of his PC to grab this Airplane fucker by the shoulders and shake him until the rightful plot of PIDW fell out of his brains.
Instead, Shen Yuan got out of his chair to pace. His mouth was dry, his hands were trembling slightly.
He needed a drink to cool down.
With that thought, he headed for his kitchen fridge. The lowkey vertigo he was feeling which he’d attributed to the combination of hunger and anger at the back of his mind, suddenly came to the forefront.
The world gave a mighty lurch and Shen Yuan? Shen Yuan didn’t even feel it when he hit the ground.
“...are you listening to me? Su shidi?”
There came the sound of a teenager from somewhere in front of him but still close by. The voice of a stranger.
Alarmed, Shen Yuan fought to open his eyes.
Literally! He really had to fight himself to do it. Everything felt heavy in a way it had not been just moments before. The return of his senses was delayed and gradual, but there was a chill that reached his aching bones - especially his limbs which throbbed at the joints with a duller, more insistent ache. Something pulled in his chest too, and every slight inhale and exhale was accompanied by the sharpest twinge of warning pain. Most disconcerting of all was this distant feeling? of unease that fluttered in his heart, stomach and tangled around his mind. Like he was sitting at the edge of panic though there was no cause. Consciousness meant he would have to deal with all this unpleasantness at a hundred percent.
But then, still intruding, the voice was persistent. Led by hearing, his other senses came reluctantly back online. And as they did so, the clothes on his back and the fabric that wrapped around his arm truly felt quite odd.
Squinting in the light, Shen Yuan found himself sitting at a low table with his head propped up by a hand, the world feeling like it was tilting around him. He tried to focus on the person talking to him, and the rest of the room resolved itself in the background. The floors were wood, the walls - were more windows than anything else - all the way to the rafters were wood too. But the ceiling was high and the tall papered windows let in plenty of light. Minimal embellishments (in fact no decorative elements at all) just an austere serenity that didn’t feel anything like a photoshoot background or even a drama set.
In this environment full of genuine ancient vibes, the feeling that he was out of time and out of place couldn’t be any stronger.
“Assess your capability and act accordingly.” The boy continued to lecture. “If you haven’t fully recovered then you shouldn’t be overstretching yourself.”
He looked to be a young teenager dressed in robes of white, crossed collar, embroidery, flowy sleeves and all, with his hair in a topknot and secured with a guan. A Jia Baoyu style headband, a white mo’e, on his forehead completed the look.
Looking down, Shen Yuan confirmed that he was in the same guzhuang drama style getup.
And speaking of looking, they were both sitting on bamboo mats with a long wooden table set low to the ground before each of them. Inkstone and stick, brush and papers were set out primly on every table. On his own desk there was something extra though. A little book full of tiny writing in Regular Script, askew across the top of his writing papers.
There wasn’t time to look at it in detail. Shen Yuan raised a hand to touch his own mo’e.
So, transmigration it was.
If this were a drama and he, an actor with good comedic timing, this would have been a great time to roll his eyes up and faint dramatically. Instead, Shen Yuan turned the motion into a move to rub at his temples, cautiously hoping to buy a little more time to avoid speaking without information.
That senior of his bought it. Cutting off himself mid-sentence, he leaned forward in concern to feel Shen Yuan’s forehead with a hand. Before he could speak though, there came the single chime of a bell from somewhere outside, and everyone around them began to gather their things.
That boy may have been attired like one of those distantly cold shixiongs of xianxia dramas, with the light and gauzy robes of white offsetting an averagely handsome face, but this new classmate of Shen Yuan’s surely had a warm heart and an old stickler’s soul for rules. He swept up their things, mindful of Shen Yuan’s bandaged right hand and his earlier show of discomfort, hovered until Shen Yuan managed to struggle to his feet while politely looking away, then helpfully guided him all the way back to their living quarters. Of course, not forgetting to continue the next chapter of his scolding.
By the time they got to the courtyard of shared rooms for the Lan Family’s external disciples, Shen Yuan already knew at least thirty of its three thousand rules (through a process that made thirty feel closer to three hundred), that he had broken three in the space of one nap during the self study period that had just passed, and the spirit (though not the letter) of another seven earlier in the day by skipping meals.
Speaking of room, the most eye-catching thing in these rooms was immediately the guqin on another low table and the wooden box beside it with a lid that could not quite close on the fat sheafs of papers within —
“Su She! Are you listening to me?”
Oh, he had also found out what was his ‘new name’.
“Gu shixiong.” Said Shen Yuan - Su She now - with an ingratiating smile before the other could go on. “Su She has learned from his mistakes! It was extremely irresponsible of me to ignore my health and skip meals. The Lan rules exist to guide our behaviour and allow us to improve ourselves where we might not realize our habits are deviating from what is right, not as a mountain of dead rules to sneakily find ways around… Um, not only is that mentality erroneous, and finding loopholes wrong, but finding loopholes to achieve the wrong ends compounds the problem. You see? I know. I know I’m wrong now, but would you please let your shidi off the hook today?”
He added pleadingly when that only got him a suspicious side-eye, “I…I’m really not feeling well.”
“Hmph. Don’t think I didn’t see it earlier. You weren’t just napping back then in the room, were you?” Said Gu shixiong, visibly softening.
Those words very nearly had Shen Yuan breaking out in a cold sweat, but the the look in Gu shixiong's eyes gave him hope, and he held steady waiting for the other to finish.
“Your ribs and arm were bothering you, and maybe the knock to the head too - that must have been nearly a faint. You’re only being good and reflecting on yourself now because the consequences caught up to you and gave you a good scare!”
...
And that was how Shen Yuan found out that all the pain he was in wasn’t because of the transmigration at all, but because of this body's owner, Su She’s, grocery list of issues.
He had been injured on a night excursion, but because of exemplary performance before that, he had already been elevated from disciple-in-name to external disciple. Any sensible, responsible person would take their time afterward to recover and heal as was proper. But since Su She returned to Cloud Recesses, for some reason that no one could imagine, he’d been working triply hard with barely any time to rest. His arm had been cut open and his head and ribs cracked. Yet every day, he was working on his qin playing, attempting his writing practice and practicing his sword forms. It had been a month since and he was still getting fevers for seemingly no reason at all - but that at least was a phenomenon that made sense to the rest, seeing as how (in spite of all this hard work) he still hadn't developed a golden core yet. Everyone knew a cultivator without a golden core was subject to the same health woes as mortals.
Hearing all this, with his years of experience as a webnovel connoisseur, Shen Yuan suspected ego reasons and possibly minor one-sided rivalry reasons.
He lit a candle in his heart for Su She’s persistence which was soon to come to naught. It was Shen Yuan taking over the helm for their life now. And as bad as he felt for this person who had left his world likely without anyone he knew realizing it, Shen Yuan’s primary concern was continuing to live well.
And for that to happen, he needed to learn more about it.
A xianxia world…
From his place on the bed as Gu shixiong was about to leave, Su She eyed the books on the shelves, thinking he was not watching. But spotting that look, shixong rolled his eyes and pulled out one of his own, going back and shoving it in his shidi’s hands.
[Record of the Mountains and Seas]
“This one isn’t too heavy, but I think you haven’t read it before. Now’s the perfect time to get around to it.” He said.
━━━ヽ(ヅ)ノ━━━
A year could be called a long time. It could just as well be called short.
Time enough for great change or maybe none at all.
By the next time Gusu Lan’s classes taught by their respected Master Lan, Lan Qiren, were in session, Su She was unanimously volunteered by all the external disciples as their inaugural representative.
“Shixongs and shijie. I’m not sure that it works like this.” He said in conflicted amusement, and was immediately met with a deluge of cajoling and excuses.
“You know what you can expect? Lectures and discussion about the theory and practice of exorcism, and dealing with the unnatural!”
“It’s the best opportunity to mingle with the children and future leaders of other Families!”
“Yeah. What he said! More friends, more possibilities right?
“Su shidi is the youngest of us all, and the only one who hasn’t had the honor of meeting Lan xiansheng yet. It’ll be a valuable experience!”
“Didn’t you once say that you’d like to hear about different cultivation practices of other regions firsthand?”
“I heard the Jiang heir of Yunmeng and their senior disciple will be coming. They can surely settle that argument about drowned water ghosts definitively!”
Of all the bait his seniors tried to entice him with, it was that last one that struck Su She over the head like a reverberating gong.
Jiang Cheng is the youngest son of Jiang Fengmian, the head of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan. He had a mother, a sister, and a best friend.
Su She still remembered the last words he’d ever read in that previous world. He had been very aware that what happened to him was undoubtedly the ‘transmigration’ trope, so well loved as a genre with all its spinoff types. But now it seemed clear that he had actually transmigrated into an unwritten novel, which... not only was that questionable, it was also several different layers worth of worrying!
It also explained some of what had been puzzling him so. Like the overwhelming dominance of the clan structure of ‘cultivation organizations’ over sects and the sparse history of how it came to be. Like how there were different schools of thought and approaches as opposed to actual Schools. In fact, the Lans were just about the only family that offered ‘schooling’ in the traditional sense in this cultivation world; and even so, their library was strictly closed to outsiders. Which meant that cultivation techniques and knowledge were strictly family only. And finally, the thing that stood out most of all - how even though there were such robust systems for classification of supernatural beings, the distinct stages of cultivation were completely missing in contrast!
‘What sort of xianxia or cultivation world is this?’ Su She had thought, disdainful at the perfunctory structure (or lack thereof) for what, to him, was a core feature of such worlds, comparing this barren minimalism to the excessive messiness of PIDW.
Well, it sure made sense now!
It was very likely that both came into existence thanks to the same brain.
So! It was Airplane bro whom he had to thank for this.
“— carved into stone and challenging to read. Alright, that was a fair excuse. That is why they’re now being read aloud. With this, I wanted to see who will attempt to claim ignorance after flouting the rules. But it seems even with another option we still have people who Can’t. Pay. Attention.” At the head of Orchid Hall before his pupils, Lan Qiren had chosen the Lan Rules of all things as his opening topic.
Ah that. Su She nodded empathically. He had Thoughts about that one.
(Mainly, that it was true no one really read them all. Especially not with the rules carved in Seal Script on a rock face that was so enormous. Even the eyesight of cultivators had limits, alright? It would be more efficient to rearrange them by theme rather than chronological order of when they were added, to summarize the underlying principle and perhaps post them in relevant spaces, providing a copy to every room as well, or even - and this was a thought for the distant future - making a searchable scroll through arrays of some sort. He had with limited success, wheedled some seniors into working on that first one. But it was a lot of work that needed time.)
“Fine. We can talk about other topics.”
Well thank heavens Master Lan wasn’t as inflexible as the rumors claimed?
When Lan Qiren called out for Wei Ying though, Su She sat up straighter from his place at the back of the classroom and surreptitiously craned his neck to get a look. This had to be Jiang Cheng’s brother who would survive the fall of their clan but be in life threatening danger.
Anyway, he was now being asked a trick question.
It was straightforward one, but from the looks on the faces of some people on his row, Su She thought with some amusement that at least some were probably hoping this Wei Ying would continue to hold Master Lan’s attention.
“There is a term ‘yāo mó guǐ guài’. Is this all the same type of thing?”
“They are not.”
“How so? And how do we differentiate them?”
“They can be differentiated based on origin. Yāo come into being from any non-human living thing. Mó, from living humans. Guǐ, ghosts, from beings that are dead. Guài, from non-living things.”
It has been a year that he had spent in this world. But Su She still could not help himself from making mental comparisons. Every author did their own worldbuilding based on their understanding and creativity, hence different canon universes always had their own unique systems. Types of cultivation, types of beings, types of organizations and so on and the dynamics between them all. It was the awesomest sort of opportunity to see and feel such a world with one’s own eyes.
Alas, if only the dangerous aspects of it were not also real…
Su She 2.0 had not stepped foot outside of Cloud Recesses since the day he ‘arrived’. He had enough self awareness and common sense to know he was not in the least bit ready. In all the days since, he had been studying so broadly and designing practical exercises with such invested enthusiasm that his younger, university-era self would probably look on with horror and incomprehension. Where was that chill and easily satisfied Shen Yuan now??
He was looking forward to the day he could live out his daydream fantasies, but with enough skill and knowledge to do so in relative safety, because like it or not, this was his reality now.
Yāo in this universe seemed to be beasts with enhanced ability to engage or interact with the world and things that lived in it on a metaphysical level. But these at least were the easiest to understand and subdue once you knew their habits and weaknesses. Handling Mó - Fallen, not ‘evil’ - was complicated technically, but also more difficult on a moral level because in cases where other humans had not been harmed, the once-person who had Fallen needed to be assessed for awareness and level of threat to others. And then appropriately handled. It all looked straightforward on paper, but Su She looked at the ink and knew every line was written in blood.
...
Somehow the impromptu quiz had gone down the path into case studies now. Su She didn’t think he had missed much because he had only lost interest for a few moments while Wei Ying and Master Lan were doing lightning rounds of widely available information on family trivia and history.
“We state that Deliverence is the preferred primary method of handling such cases, but it is frequently not a viable course of action.” Wei Ying was saying in a rather exceedingly proper tone, Su She thought. Suspicious.
“Fulfill his wishes while he was alive in order to address and dissolve his Obsessions.” He quoted Lan Wangji. “That’s easy to say! If the Obsession is about owning a new set of clothes, that would be an easy negotiation. But what if it’s a need for revenge that can only be appeased with the death of an entire family?”
“Hence Deliverance is the primary method. Quelling is used as a supporting measure, with Vanquishment as the last recourse where necessary.”
“What a waste of resource!" Wei Ying muttered. "Look, it wasn’t that I didn’t know the standard protocol earlier. I was actually considering a fourth option.”
Master Lan spoke the words in Su She’s curious heart. “A fourth option? That's unheard of. Do share.”
Wei Ying replied, “The executioner died a sudden and violent death. That he will become a fierce corpse is a forgone conclusion. Since he had chopped of the head of over a hundred people, why not dig up the graves of these hundred, agitate their Resentful Energy, gather their hundred heads and have them fight that corpse —”
“Lan xiansheng, may I make a response to that very bold statement from Young Master Wei?” Su She quickly cut in, trying his hardest to mask his amusement, and was motioned to go ahead.
He stood with a bow to Wei Ying. “That was quite the escalation. Maybe you’ve never thought of this, but why is Deliverance always our top priority even though it is so difficult?
“Something to do with the proper order of relationships, no doubt.”
It seemed obvious Wei Ying was dialing it down a bit now that it wasn’t any of the people he was trying to annoy.
“Now you give the textbook answer? Those hardly ever present the intent and resulting action outright. I don't know, are we supposed to meditate on it ourselves? Most people don't! In my view, peaceful settlement and negotiation is emphasized because we want to minimize harm to all. That is: First, do no harm. To the deceased to their family, to innocents, to life and property and to ourselves.”
“But there are some things for which Deliverance isn’t of any use at all. Why let them go to waste?” Wei Ying paused to think of an analogy. “Even way back in ancient times, Yu knew that when it came to flood control, blockage was the least effective and redirection was the most efficient. Quelling is essentially the same strategy as blocking. So what does that make it?”
“Young Master Wei, are you trying to tell us that the properties of floodwater are identical to the properties of human souls? Because the effect of Resentful Energy on souls has been observed, and while it does also cause damage, it sure doesn’t flow away eventually the way that water does!”
The initial burst of anger as he understood what Wei Wuxian had been approaching with his words had calmed. And suddenly, the traces of his cunning plan became clear. Lan Qiren followed up with, “And do you know for sure that this harnessed Resentful Energy won’t cause harm to others?”
“I haven’t thought about that yet.” Said Wei Ying with his full chest.
“Of course you haven’t. The day you do is the day you can no longer share a table with us in this room. Now sit down.”
Plan of escape thoroughly foiled, the would-be delinquent heaved a dramatic sigh and sat.
But something that had been said earlier lingered in Su She’s mind. A quick flash of thought that disappeared before he could catch its tail.
“Actually, Master Lan, are there beings for which Deliverance isn’t applicable?” He quickly added with a polite nod in his direction. “— definitely not ghosts as Young Master Wei says.”
Lan Qiren considered this, then spoke to the room. “A lesson is to be had here for those of you who have been lost since ‘yāo mó guǐ guài’ was first brought up. It is used as either a word or a limited classification. Can anyone tell me why I am calling it limited?”
Someone offered. “Because there are also living beings like spirit beasts and godly beasts.”
“There are sub classifications that don’t necessarily fall neatly into any one of the boxes.”
“And some things that move between them.” Suddenly, Su She remembered what he had been curious about.
“An example?”
“Godly beasts. The common people use them as representations to divide their skies. But with faith in them, they have also been invested with the status of gods. As beasts, we have eyewitness accounts of their existence and rumors of ‘false’ gods. If there are false gods to contrast with, then there must also be real ones.” He flipped to find the little note he had written in the margin of the Compendium which he was currently doggedly pursuing for an offhand mention. He was so preoccupied that he startled a little when upon looking up, he found Master Lan standing right above him. He’d walked right to the back without Su She noticing.
Head bent backwards a little, Su She continued, “There are claims that a minor family in the South can invoke the Vermillion Bird to guide spirits to the afterlife. And in a land far to the East, it allegedly can even be invited into a body.”
Lan Qiren was looking at him intently. Su She straightened his back with an enquiring, “Xiansheng?”
This got him a rare smile, barely visible under that mountain-goatlike beard.
“Improve your regular script. Refrain from that vandalism habit. And when you are ready, come see me.” He said uncharacteristically cryptic. “There is a place that may answer your questions.”
Master Lan turned and walked back to the front of the class.
Outside the windows of Orchid Hall, the sounds of Spring drift by along with clouds in the blue sky.