Chapter Text
Shen Yuan wakes up. He's lying flat on his back in the dirt, blearily staring up at a canopy of rustling leaves above him. Is he, what, in the middle of a park somewhere?
That doesn't really make sense. Those look like some pretty tall trees—and there's too many of them, too close together, for him to be in a park. Probably. He definitely can’t be in a forest because—well, look. First of all, Shen Yuan doesn't remember the last time he left his apartment for anything other than to go to the corner store. Second, he's never been one for going to parks, or forests, and he's not sure he could point out the closest park to his apartment on a map.
Third, he distinctly remembers dying.
Oh shit I just died.
Shen Yuan takes a moment to lie there, feeling incredibly...not dead. He's breathing and everything. This can't be the afterlife, can it? If it is—well, there isn't anything he can do if it is. If it isn't, then where the hell is he?
He sits up slowly. Shen Yuan feels alive, yeah, but he also feels—the best description is bruised, except on the inside. Like all his veins had been whacked at as if they were a piñata. Weirdly, other than that, he feels great—
Shen Yuan freezes in place as a long lock of hair slides over his shoulder. He reaches up. Tugs it. Feels the corresponding pressure on his head. Feels the sway of his silk sleeves, and looks down to see the unfamiliar robes he’s wearing.
What the fuck?!
[Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Important things must be stated three times! Welcome to the System. This System operates in line with the design concept “YOU CAN YOU UP, NO CAN NO BB”; we hope to provide you with the best possible experience. It is our sincere wish that during your time, you can fulfill your desires and, in accordance with your wish, transform a stupid work into a magnificent, high-quality, first-rate classic. We hope you enjoy.]
Hahahafuck. He definitely died! And transmigrated?!
Shen Yuan tucks his head between his knees and tries not to freak out. That's what you're supposed to do if you're hyperventilating, right?
Okay. Okay, okay, okay.
After some thought, this could be way worse. He could be for-real dead, no take backs, and instead he's transmigrated! That's awesome! Especially since he died in such a stupid way! At least he got transmigration out of the deal.
God, he can't believe it was Proud Immortal Demon Way that killed him—
Shen Yuan's thoughts screech to a halt.
"System," he says, uncurling and lifting his head to look toward where the System's screen had been previously. "Exactly what 'stupid work' am I supposed to fix?"
[Host is currently in World: Proud Immortal Demon Way!]
Shen Yuan ducks his head back down between his knees and screams in abject fury and despair.
“All right. I’m in Proud Immortal Demon Way," he says, once he's had a chance to compose himself again. He sits back up, tossing his stupidly long hair back over his shoulders where it belongs; he is totally calm and ready to grill the System for more information. "Who am I supposed to be?"
Please please please don't let it be someone who Bingge violently murders.
Though given the fact that he's a man in PIDW, his chances are already skewed, and not in his favor. Ugh.
[Bound Role: Shen Yuan, Rogue Cultivator. Weapon: the sword Heng Li. Starting B-Points: 100.]
Shen Yuan takes a moment to digest that. "Did you just create an NPC for me?"
Seriously! NPC, side-character, whatever—the body he's in has his name! The System must have just formed a body for him wholesale when he transmigrated! Unbelievable.
...Not that he isn't grateful that he's so obviously an NPC. Shen Yuan would know if there was someone in this trashfire of a novel that shared his name. Especially because, again, most male characters—especially named male characters—had something terrible happen to them at some point. Usually as a direct result of Luo Binghe and/or one of the wife-plots and/or—
Yeah. If this world exists for women to get fucked by Bingge, it also exists to fuck over the men.
Anyway.
Rogue cultivator. This is great! He can explore the world and hopefully avoid running into Luo Binghe for, oh, how about the rest of his life?
Actually, that brings up a good point.
"System? When in the timeline am I?'
That will severely affect any of his plans, after all.
[Host will have to discover that for himself!]
What the fuck?! "Why can't you just tell me?" he demands.
[This System doesn't want bias affecting Host's actions!] is the response.
What's that supposed to mean?!!
Fine. Fine. Surely it can't be that difficult to figure out. Unbiased actions, huh?
"I'm supposed to fix the novel, right? Do I have any required tasks?"
That's how it always seems to go in these kinds of stories. The System assigns the transmigrator various tasks, so that they can fix the novel or progress the plot or whatever. This works out for Shen Yuan—he might be able to place himself in the timeline based on what the System wants him to do.
There is a long pause.
"System?" Shen Yuan asks suspiciously.
[...Host has been granted Junior VIP status,] the System says, sounding as reluctant as a godawful Google Translate knock-off voice can. [Host may utilize Limited Sandbox Mode. Would Host like to utilize this feature? Yes / No ]
"Limited sandbox? What does that mean?" It sounds like an oxymoron.
[Host will not have required missions in Limited Sandbox Mode, but may take on optional quests if desired. Warning: Limited Sandbox Mode will severely limit the amount of B-Points Host is able to gain or lose!]
Shen Yuan wishes the System would give him a handbook to read instead of making him go through all this question-and-answer bullshit.
“B-Points?" he asks dutifully.
[As the plot progresses, B-Points and various other types of points will become available to Host. Points can be spent in the System Store, if Host is interested in specialty items or scenarios. Please ensure no points fall below zero, or the System will automatically mete out punishment, up to and including: automatic deportation to Host’s home world.]
Uh. His home world? Where he’s dead? Isn’t the System saying it will kill him?! Shen Yuan takes a deep breath.
"You said points loss could be reduced in Limited Sandbox Mode? How reduced?"
The System's box flickers. If it were human, Shen Yuan would say it’s squirming.
[This System cannot deduct B-Points in Limited Sandbox Mode,] it says finally.
"Engage Limited Sandbox Mode," Shen Yuan says, sweet as sugar and vicious as any of Peerless Cucumber's infamous forum rants.
[Is Host sure? Reminder: Host will not be able to gain as many B-Points, which he can use in the System Store for speciality items and scenarios—]
"Engage it," Shen Yuan repeats. Hell yes he's going to utilize a function that will keep him from being kicked out of this body early!
[Downloading Limited Sandbox Mode...installing...installed. Host is now utilizing Limited Sandbox Mode.]
Nice. "How did I get Junior VIP status anyway?" Shen Yuan belatedly asks.
[Host does not have sufficient authorization to receive that information.]
Shen Yuan's eyebrows jump. "Can I use B-Points to get an answer, or do I need to cultivate to a certain level? Or is this some kind of System Administration thing?"
[Host does not have sufficient authorization to—]
"Okay, okay," Shen Yuan says, holding up his hands. Probably SysAdmin then. Well, Shen Yuan shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. "So...do you have any missions for me?"
[Optional Mission: "Starter Quest—Rogue Cultivator to the Rescue!" is available. Would Host like to accept this mission? Yes / No ]
A starter quest, huh? That sounds like just the thing to help him get settled in his new life as a rogue cultivator.
Shen Yuan clicks Yes.
The first mission the System sends him on is the definition of a starter mission. Shen Yuan doesn't know why he would have expected anything else. It's easy to the extreme—which Shen is grateful for, don't get him wrong! He has to live a life in Proud Immortal Demon Way when all he's done with his life before that is read various cultivation (web-)novels.
Fortunately, this body has muscle memory the System must have loaded in to make him fit the "rogue cultivator" archetype. He takes half a day to practice with Heng Li and his qi, getting an understanding of how this actually works when it’s not only words on the page.
From what Shen Yuan can tell, with his exceedingly limited knowledge, all the swordwork he uses seems to flow surprisingly well. It’s not at all rough, as he would have expected made-up forms to be. The forms are—well, they’re almost like real forms. Hm.
System, are these real forms? Shen Yuan asks.
[Host may unlock this answer for 100 B-Points!] is the System’s very useful answer.
Fuck you, too, Shen Yuan thinks. He wonders if this is related to the Junior VIP situation. Weird that it would tell he can unlock this answer when he was “unauthorized” for everything else. He supposes he’ll have to earn more points and come back to that question.
In the meantime…maybe he should create a backstory for himself, say that he had a master who taught him at one point? That's usually how it works, though there are certainly some rogue cultivators who are completely self-taught.
Things to consider.
Best keep it vague at first, if anyone asks. No need to dig himself into a hole he can't get himself out of, especially if he can get an answer from the System later.
First mission: take out a monster in the woods for a village near where he'd woken up. The monster in this case being a Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear, which was disturbed from its (you guessed it) ten year long hibernation schedule, then distressed by the villagers having chopped down several trees. It has been rampaging through those self-same woods, growing steadily closer to the village as it goes.
Shen Yuan tracks it down, desperately hoping he won’t have to kill it. It’s not the Dwarf Lemur Bear’s fault that the villagers hadn’t paid attention to replanting the trees they’d cut down for this past winter! Probably they assumed they would have more time to restore the forest, but the Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear’s sleep had been disturbed, smack dab in the middle of its ten years of hibernation.
(Shen Yuan will grant Airplane this: ten years is a ridiculous amount of time for an animal to spend asleep, but the idea that Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bears gather energy and store it in their tails, along with stuffing themselves with food before returning to their hibernation, is fascinating. They perform some sort of rudimentary inedia! They’re not cultivators, but they can utilize their stored energies in almost the same way.
Too bad Airplane never used Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bears for anything more than a one-off creature in a new wife’s acquisition. As the story went, her village—a new settlement, unaware of the very large and temperamental animal sleeping in the nearby forest—had nearly been destroyed by a Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear. This ultimately led to her becoming a cultivator, so that she could protect her village in case it was ever attacked by rampaging wildlife—or worse—again. It was also she came back every few years: to make sure the forest was healthy, and that the Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear was living its best and most peaceful Dwarf Lemur Bear life.
Which it had done for many years, before Luo Binghe accidentally burned down half of the forest, sending the Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear into a rampage. Luo Binghe had killed it, only for the tearful soon-to-be-wife to explain the whole history behind it and the village. Luo Binghe had made noises about restoring the forest, protecting it in the Dwarf Lemur Bear’s stead, et cetera and so forth until the wife had fallen into his arms, joined his harem, and apparently never returned to check on the forest again.
Fuck your mother, Airplane!)
Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bears are famously temperamental—especially if their hibernation is interrupted or their forests harmed, much less both at once—but ultimately not a monster that usually causes problems if they're left alone. There are significantly worse beasts in this world. Since they help look after a forest’s health, they’re even useful creatures!
Not that a creature has to be useful to exist, but it makes it a lot easier to explain to the villagers why he’d left it alive.
Shen Yuan manages to lead it away from the village. He follows the trail of destruction back to what must be its den, the Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear right behind him. With careful talisman work—thank you, System, for including those in the qiankun pouch he’d woken up with!—he gets the Dwarf Lemur Bear back inside its den, and he seals it there.
Not forever! Just long enough for the villagers to replant some trees. The Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear can go back to sleep, and when it wakes up again, its forest will be back to the way it should be.
Shen Yuan scouts around the den, trying to figure out what woke it in the first place. Eventually, he finds a campsite that looks to have been abandoned in a hurry.
Someone didn’t know about all the local fauna when they decided to go on their hunting trip, did they?
He doesn’t see any bodies. They must have run for it when they woke the Ten-Year Dwarf Lemur Bear. Shen Yuan cleans up the campsite, tucks away the supplies left behind because finders keepers, and returns to the village to report the mission a success.
The villagers give Shen Yuan a meal, a place to sleep, and even provisions for him to put in his qiankun pouch (along with his illicitly gained camping supplies), before they direct him further down the road where he might find more work.
"Cang Qiong territory is a good place for a rogue cultivator," someone says, several days, villages, and minor System missions away. "Oh, they do their best, but it's nice that you young fellows can come through as well."
Aha! Shen Yuan doesn't crow aloud, no matter how much he wants to. Finally, a clue as to the timeline! He'd known that he wasn't in a time post-realm merging, as that would have been fairly obvious, but the fact that Cang Qiong is still standing narrows it down even further.
...Assuming he isn't here in a time that's horrendously pre-canon.
"Mn," Shen Yuan says in response to the villager. "Much more open to sharing than Huan Hua."
Huan Hua Palace does their absolute best to keep rogue cultivators out of their territory; any business going away from the Palace means that much less gold for them.
While reading the novel, Shen Yuan had appreciated the power base that Luo Binghe made of Huan Hua, but the sect as it had existed before Luo Binghe's takeover—ah, it really hadn't seemed worth all that much, metaphorically, as it was portrayed in the novel. Shen Yuan hasn't been in this world very long, but nothing he's heard has contradicted that opinion.
(It's a strongly held opinion. Which is a little strange, isn't it? He hadn't thought he cared all that much in his original world.
He chalks it up as having enough experience now to have an educated and practical opinion. If nothing else, it's an opinion he can feed into his falsified backstory. A reason for not joining a sect? He'll workshop it.)
The best thing to have come from Huan Hua was Luo Binghe, given his mother was its former head disciple—
Shen Yuan's fingers spasm as he hands his coins over to the vendor. He quickly gathers his new provisions into his qiankun pouch to cover the slip. He must be tired.
"You don't happen to know anyone who needs work?" Shen Yuan asks, continuing the conversation.
"Well..." says the vendor.
Two weeks after waking up in Proud Immortal Demon Way, Shen Yuan finds himself in Shuang Hu City.
He had just completed a mission in a mid-sized village and hadn't even had a chance to scope out someone else willing to hire a rogue cultivator before he had been approached. He had followed the young lady to a quieter spot to discuss the details, and had blushed furiously as he realized exactly where she was leading him.
Shen Yuan had whipped out one of his recently-bought fans to cover his face, but he followed her into the brothel. There was real fear on the young lady's face. Real desperation. He had to at least hear her out. Cultivators were supposed to help people, weren't they?
To his surprise, the young lady brought him straight to the brothel's madam.
Shen Yuan had hastily bowed to her, saying, "Greetings to Madam. This Shen Yuan is here to offer his assistance, if Madam requires it."
The madam, who introduced herself as Madam Yu, had a strange look on her face for a moment. "Shen Yuan," she repeated, then seemed to shake off her thoughts. "Please, Daozhang, sit." She gestured to the chair in front of her desk. Shen Yuan sat, folding his fan and placing it in his lap.
"Has Daozhang been in the area long?" the madam asked, after one of the workers had slipped inside, poured the two of them tea, and retreated again.
Shen Yuan shook his head in the negative.
"Daozhang wouldn't have heard of the murders, then," Madam Yu said.
Shen Yuan set down his tea. "What murders?"
"For a month, my girls were being killed. Picked off one by one." Grief flashed over Madam Yu’s face. "We couldn't do anything to stop it. We didn't know how or why they were being targeted, and there was no one we could ask for help." Bitterness coated the last half of that sentence.
"Not even Cang Qiong?" Shen Yuan asked.
She shook her head. "We tried. We tried reaching out to—a certain contact." Her eyes swept over Shen Yuan again. "It must not have reached him."
How horrible. No wonder they felt they had to turn to a rogue, if Cang Qiong wouldn't respond to them.
"This one will help you, if he is able," Shen Yuan said. He ran back over what the madam had told him. "You said they were being killed. Not anymore?"
"Four of my girls were killed. We thought it was three, that A-Fang had only run away, silly girl—she was acting so strange the entire week before she disappeared. But then one of my sisters in Shuang Hu City reached out to me. A-Fang went to Shuang Hu City, and she was killed there. In the same way that my other girls were killed." Madam Yu’s eyes closed briefly. "And now there have been several murders in Shuang Hu City.”
The serial killer changed locations, Shen Yuan thought to himself. To throw off the scent? To find new targets? What changed?
“A-Fang was acting strangely, you said?” Shen Yuan said. Why had she gone to Shuang Hu City? Had she known something that the other brothel workers didn't? Why would the killer have followed her there? "Can Madam expand on that?"
"I thought it was the stress," Madam Yu said. "We all did. She was being so—odd. Drinking, acting out. Not at all like herself. Though I suppose I can't say it was only her. All of my girls who died—they acted the same."
Shen Yuan mulled that over. He had asked a few follow-up questions, trying to get a feel for the situation. Madam Yu gave him a letter of introduction to take to Shuang Hu City; the madam at that brothel would answer any other questions he asked.
"Thank you, Daozhang," Madam Yu said as Shen Yuan prepared to leave. He needed to gather a few supplies before he made his way on to Shuang Hu City. It probably wouldn't hurt to write down all the information he had compiled so far, ah. He needed to get his hands on a xianxia notebook…
"This one will do his best to help you," Shen Yuan said.
"That you even heard me out is more than most would do," Madam Yu answered. It was a crushing indictment of society.
Shen Yuan was going to solve this case. He had to. He offered a bow to the madam, lower than the one he had offered her upon first meeting, and set off on his way.
Now he's in Shuang Hu City. The information from Madam Yu is out of date. Shuang Hu City's Madam Ruan gives him all the information she can about the murders in her own brothel, only two in total, and then tells him that the killer has apparently moved on from the brothels.
The most recent murders in Shuang Hu City were of Old Master Chen's concubines. He'd had three originally; now, only one remains.
Madam Ruan has confirmed all of the same details about the killer that Madam Yu had told Shen Yuan. She also fills Shen Yuan in on the gossip surrounding the killer, including the fact that the townsfolk had dubbed this murderer the "Skinner Demon," for the way it skinned its beautiful young victims.
Which, by the way, was absolute bullshit! For his sins, Shen Yuan had read the entirety of this shit-stupid novel, and a "Skinner Demon" had never been mentioned!!
System, Shen Yuan says as he leaves Shuang Hu City's brothel. Is this a quest that happened in the original novel? I never read about it!
[Host has equipped Limited Sandbox Mode. Host is not required to follow every plotline to the end!]
That doesn't answer my question! Shen Yuan howls.
Fine! He's already committed to this. He isn't going to back out now, even if it would be nice if the System could actually give him a straight answer.
Ugh. Shen Yuan supposes that, in a way, the System had answered him. This is an unintended consequence of the Limited Sandbox Mode. Luo Binghe never went on this mission, so why would it have been mentioned in the text of the novel? Shen Yuan is free to do whatever he wants in this world, and that includes running into monsters that never made it into the original.
...Actually, when he looks at it like that, it's rather exciting, isn't it? Monsters, beasts, plants that Airplane never mentioned? Yes, please. So long as Shen Yuan doesn't fuck up enough to get himself killed or dosed with aphrodisiacs, this sounds like paradise to him.
First thing's first, he needs to find this "Skinner Demon."
The sun is sinking down toward the horizon as Shen Yuan walks through the marketplace. The Skinner Demon kills on a weekly basis, and it's been precisely that long since its last victim. If it's going to strike, it will be soon.
Unsurprisingly, there aren't many women out and about. Madam Ruan had told him of how every family with daughters, wives, or concubines shut their doors and locked themselves away as soon as night fell, hoping to keep their loved ones safe. None of their efforts had helped so far. And yet, it really is safest to stay inside. No need to make a target of oneself—
"Shijie," Shen Yuan hears. "We really should return. Shizun told us to return by sundown—”
Shen Yuan's gaze slides sideways. Two young teenagers are at the edge of the market, the boy pleading with his sect sister. His sect sister, who is young and cute and running around at sunset in a town with a serial killer.
"You two," Shen Yuan says, striding over to them. "What are you doing here?"
The boy's eyes go wide and frightened. A bit of an overreaction, ah?
"This disciple apologizes," the boy says quickly, dipping into a bow. His shoulders hunch like he's expecting to be hit. Shen Yuan can't help the little tug on his heart at the sight of it.
"Up, up, stop bowing," he says. "You two need to get inside before night falls completely." They're obviously members of a sect; are they also here to deal with the Skinner Demon? If so, shouldn't they know better than to be wandering the streets? Especially the girl.
The girl who...pouts at him, reaching out to tug at his sleeve. "But Shizun," she says. "You said we could explore the market!"
Shen Yuan stares at her. "Who's your Shizun?"
The girl blinks at him. The boy's eyes narrow. "Shijie," he says, quiet and yet with a tone of warning in it.
Shen Yuan is glad at least one of these children has a sense of stranger danger. Are they new disciples, to mistake a stranger for their Shizun? Hopefully they've had enough sense instilled in them to understand that they need to get themselves out of danger.
"You need to get off the streets," Shen Yuan says. "The killer strikes at night. Can you safely get back to where you’re staying?"
Shen Yuan will escort them if they ask. If not, he plans on shadowing them back to their quarters; he's not letting them walk unaccompanied, not when neither of them has a sword. Nor any weapon that he can see, good grief! Arm your students if they're in a murder town, nameless shizun!
"Shizun," the girl says again, sounding confused, her hand still tangled in his sleeve. The boy reaches for her free hand, obviously planning to pull her away.
That's about when everything goes to hell.