Idk I Just Really Want SY Overwhelmed With Guilt For Taking SJ's Life And Going Through Hell To Bring

Idk I just really want SY overwhelmed with guilt for taking SJ's life and going through hell to bring him back ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Maybe a no-system AU where SY has a full melt down on day one right all over YQY because *he didn't want this*. He didn't want to kill someone else just so he could have a second life.

MQF world be called in and suspect SJ just has a mental break or something, since that's far more likely than this soul usurpation, but YQY overrules him bc there's no way this is SJ no matter how addled

Bonus points if airplane DOES have a system and is sweating bullets throughout all of this.

Maybe LQG gets sent with SY to find whatever plot device while YQY keeps up appearances and LQG falls for this wet dog of a man who just bleeds self sacrifice.

Eventually they get back to the sect and SY is waiting while they prepare a ritual or whatever and goes "oh shit, wait, the protagonist???" And is like "hello, you're my child now. Liu-gege, help me raise my child"

SJ comes back, pissed, SY is a spiritual creature of some sort (Empty Blossom of Moonlit Purity? Withers instantly on contact with demonic qi). SJ is talked down from vengeance since SY did immediately try (and did manage) to save him.

SY just takes LBH with him to go live on BZ.

SJ and YQY have a knock down drag out fight about how dare YQY save his life this time. How stupid is he to bring back a critical weakness? SJ ends up injuring YQY pretty seriously (since he's not even trying to defend himself) and YQY confesses that SJ is with more than his own life and always has been.

(SJ now has no idea why Qige never saved him, still doesn't know about Xuansu, but there is some reconciliation)

(meanwhile poor Binghe is like "withers on contact? 🥺")

(if SY consumes the Sunlit Flower of Balance he loses that weakness, which he does, but then forgets to mention. So he goes traveling to observe demonic beasts and gives everyone stress ulcers)

omgggggg, your role reversal au is so good… Shizun Binghe thinks he’s making Shen Yuan his little wife but lbh cleans the bamboo house, gently rouses sy in morning for a breakfast he lovingly prepared, and whines when sy leaves to attend to his head disciple duties. and the entire time lbh and like “haha! my evil plan of wife-ing A-Yuan is working” and sy is smiling to himself like “I wonder what shizun is going to make for dinner :)”

Brooo he'd be such a "crazy housewife" stereotype...

Shen Yuan: I'll be back in a few days, there's a demon terrorizing villagers-

Binghe with tears: oh another one of your "business trips" huh. I bet Liu qingge is going with you too, isn't he!?

Shen Yuan: shizun there are people that are having their skin stolen.

Not Chronically Ill in first life SY enter's SQQ's body, who does have severe chronic illness as a result of his childhood and adolescence. SY is basically in constant musculoskeletal pain AND it feels like lava and or ice water to push qi through his meridians sometimes.

And he's stuck with the OOC lock like that. He goes to MQF before going to the Lingxi caves because he's honestly concerned this body is gonna have another fatal qi deviation if he does secluded cultivation in a place like that.

So after some therapy, MQF goes with him to find a spot to cultivate and therefore is there when LQG starts deviating.

All of this to say, he's in slightly better shape come the demon invasion and LQG is much better and quicker on the draw, so SY is saved w/o a cure, but he's still got everything else.

These horrible problems cause SY to push and bully the system to give him missions so he can learn SJ's actual backstory. Once he does, he understands and wants to redeem the scum villain bc he wants to see the best in everyone.

He finds a plot device flower to create a clone of himself (the wife who used it had taken in her sister's soul as teenagers and they were doing a timeshare on the body - a villain had used it to duplicate himself to try to overpower LBH)

He manages to find it before the IAC. SJ is not happy that some dumbass took over his body, but is somewhat mollified to have a much healthier body. He's less happy for the imposter, who is already on thin fucking ice, to read him the riot act about being aggro at YQY, he can't help that he was trapped i nthe Lingxi caves healing all of his broken bones

HE WAS WHAT

Uh oh, SY didn't know SJ didn't know that.

SY tries to run for it, but oh no, SJ is going to take full advantage of having an identical twin to deal with people and things he doesn't want. Imposter wanted his life? He can have it :)

LBH is ousted from the bamboo house, but SY still dotes on him.

YQY is very confused, but since SJ is a) back and b) talking to him, sure, yes, fine, Xiao Yuan has been here the whole time, he totally knew.

(They gaslight the other peak lords)

truth serum / system reveal au where shen qingqiu gets hit with an uncloaking spell that reveals the system in the reflection of his eyes every time it pops up.

during one of his missions, in the treasure hoard of some dragon-like creature, he finds a golden, oval shaped hand mirror, its gaudy style more victorian based than anything (airplane you hack!), that doesn't seem to do anything when he looks into it. but when he does, it reveals the system's screen in his eyes.

he doesn't notice this, of course, because he can't see it, and the system, surprisingly, stays quiet.

the peak lords think he's cursed.

maybe mu qingfang is the first to notice, during the mandatory post mission check-up, when shen qingqiu is scrolling through his most recently accumulated points and mu qingfang can see the strange vividly-blue lines reflected in his pupils. it's gone when shen qingqiu blinks, like it was nothing but a trick of the light.

it comes out when yue qingyuan is visiting and, just as he's done laying out the plans for a new mission, shen qingqiu's eyes glaze over and a bright blue box takes over the whole of his iris. shen qingqiu goes quiet; the thing in his eyes moves, shifts, pulses for a second, like static worms crawling all over his pupils. then he blinks, and it's gone, and shen qingqiu accepts the mission that yue qingyuan was almost sure he would decline.

maybe there is an intervention, when the peak lords corner shen qingqiu at qian cao peak and try to figure out what's wrong, subjecting him to all kinds of treatments and curse-finding spells that turn up empty, they can't find anything.

of course, the silencing threat is still very much up and running. at first shen qingqiu was kind of confused by the whole ordeal, but when the peak lords start describing a "strange blue box", he realizes, with sickening suddenty, that they're describing the system. and he can't say anything.

this only makes everything worse, because their fellow peak lord now keeps evading every question and acts like he doesn't understand. liu qingge points right at his face and asks, "that blue box, what is it?" and shen qingqiu laughs nervously and starts talking about how bright the weather is and surely it's the sky and nothing to worry about!

even worse, during the intervention the system thought it was a good idea to start talking to him, so now even the peak lords who hadn't seen it and who might have been persuaded by light tricks and reflections, get a first row view that no, that definitely isn't a trick of the light.

they try to do the whole thing of "are you in danger, blink twice" but shen qingqiu can't even do that because it's still a direct admittance!

maybe eventually he starts saying vague confirmations that don't actually confirm anything, like "this master hears what you're saying", or maybe he goes with a classic "this master can neither confirm nor deny that." but the system starts warning him for that too and eventually he stops saying anything, which worries the others more.

luckily mu qingfang catches on that every time they ask a direct question about the box or shen qingqiu says anything vaguely confirming, it appears. it doesn't appear when they ask about curses or demons, so it must not see that as a threat.

for a little extra angst: maybe the peak lords keep pressuring him for answers, and at some point shen qingqiu gets fed up and snaps out something like, "why don't you understand that i'm not allowed to answer that!" the system counts this as a direct admittance, threatening it's existence. so it punishes. shen qingqiu has a qi deviation so bad it lasts two weeks and takes two people every day to cleanse his meridians. the system doesn't appear in that time. it doesn't appear for a long while after that, either. the peak lords stop asking, mainly because shen qingqiu will instantly leave the room if they do. they don't stop searching for a cure, though.

shang qinghua returns from a business trip and catches on the second someone mentions a blue box and forced silencing.

Angry SJ ignoring YQY for the rest of eternity because he didn't rescue him from the Qiu manor is overdone.

Hear me out- JUST LISTEN

Instead of funneling all that evil energy into beating children, SJ focuses it entirely on YQY. All his schemes and machinations focused entirely on isolating and owning YQY. No one else gets to touch his Qi-ge. No one else gets to look at him. They were bound by fate, whether YQY liked it or not.

Idk I just love the thought of yandere SJ and YQY just ":)" along for the ride

This post has been brought to you by Rule #34 ft. Fish in a bird cage

Edit: yall really watched me spell schemes wrong and straight up didn't tell me... woooooooooow

Qijiu AU

Pre-canon, HHPM decides YQY is too popular, too powerful and CQM is doing too well under the Qing generation. He feels threatened, so he starts conspiring to take out YQY and frame SQQ(J) for it.

After all, the animosity between the two is obvious and SJ is little more than a power-hungry dog dressing as a tiger.

However, HHPM's plan hinges on SQQ trying to take advantage of YQY's disappearance, or at least doing nothing.

HHPM's not expecting the full wrath of SQQ to descend the mountain like a hurricane bc yqy missed his monthly 'beg for forgiveness' tea that SQQ planned to once again snub him and refuse.

It results in a Xuan Su reveal and SQQ covered in blood while he breaks HHPM's neck with his bare hands

YQY is shocked into silence.

SQQ mutters to himself about how "Qi-ge is so stupid" and YQY cries in happiness