Chapter Text
When Shen Yuan first wakes up, it's to someone very frantically shaking him.
"Shidi?? Shidi!??"
His mind is still trying to process the robotic voice's previous bullshit, and also that fact that he's vaguely sure he just died, so he can only really mumble in response, "What the hell?".
"Shidi!! You're awake!!"
Shen Yuan opens his eyes to see the person shaking him: a handsome young man whose face is very pale and his expression terrible. Looking at his xuan duan style of dress, he catches on pretty quickly that something is up here. Transmigration ?
"Shen shidi..." the man looks a bit relieved now that he's awake, but there's still something terrible showing on his expression, as if he's lost something. He seems to hesitate before speaking again, "Are you...feeling okay?".
Shen Yuan takes the paper fan he noted was placed beside his bedside, and quickly uses it to cover his face. He doesn't fully know what's going on, but the vibe he's getting is not great. He says as calmly as he can, "There is nothing wrong."
This unfortunately does not seem to relieve the man. He pauses again. "Nothing...at all is wrong?"
He feels cold sweat run down his back - if this was truly transmigration, no way he was fucking it up this early. "I feel fine...but...where am I?"
For a few seconds, the other man just looks at him searchingly, and Shen Yuan is certain that he messed up. It looks like he wants to say something more, but much to Shen Yuan's relief, after a little bit, he doesn't press further, but simply answers him.
That relief quickly disappears when he finds out he's on Qing Jing Peak. With the doomed Yue Qingyuan at his side.
And worst of all, as the annoyingly cheerful robotic voice tells him, he's the fucking worst of them all - the scummy Shen Qingqiu !!
So no one can blame him, really, if he didn't think much further on Yue Qingyuan's reaction at that time, as it was overshadowed by everything else. There were many things that, looking back on all of this years later, he really should have realized sooner.
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He first notices it that night, long after he had struggled through acting as Shen Qingqiu in front of a protagonist he knows will kill him later.
He's in the process of taking off the bracers on his outfit - really , these old fashioned clothes were way too complicated, he's so lucky that no one is here to watch him fumble - when he is caught completely off guard by a large black spot on his wrist, dark and thick like a stroke of ink.
Did...did Shen Qingqiu have a tattoo ??
Shen Yuan struggles through the rest of his clothing as quickly as he can to uncover the rest of the mark. He is faced with two large black characters, standing out strikingly against the skin of his left arm. They nearly cover his entire inner forearm, and while it's not the worst calligraphy he's ever seen, it has an almost sloppy, childlike feel to the strokes, though there is a feeling of sincerity in their bold width. However, it's the word itself that makes him blanch.
师尊
Shizun
Shen Yuan curses inside his head as he remembers this plot point. Yet another potentially interesting concept that the hack writer Airplanes Shooting into the Sky made into an absolute dumpster fire: soulmarks .
Proud Immortal Demon Way was set in a universe where some people had soulmarks - marks on their body that matched with their intended soulmate. The words would be written on their inner left arm, and would appear either at birth or when their soulmate was born, if they were born first. The words would match the first words they heard said by their intended - or sometimes saw or felt if one person could not hear or see. It was a romantic concept.
Of course, it was one that would be ruined in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Luo Binghe did not have a soulmate. This is something that Shen Yuan thought could have been built off of in an interesting way - not everyone needs a soulmate! - but it just ended up being another stupid tragic note in the protagonist's backstory that furthered his suffering. His abusive teacher, martial brothers, and others around him would endlessly rub in that there was no one out there for him, and that he would never belong. Of course, Luo Binghe took his revenge on everyone who mocked him, and his lack of a soulmark never actually ended up being a problem. It just ended up being an excuse for him to fuck thousands of women! No need to worry about betraying anyone when you don't have a soulmate!
As for the soulmates of the women he took into his harem, there were only a few ways Airplane dealt with this. Many also didn't have soulmarks, something they could commiserate over with Luo Binghe as being the odd and rare outcasts, despite the amount of women he encountered like this surely going into the hundreds. Some had lost their own soulmates and fell into Luo Binghe's arms for comfort. Some outright left their soulmates for him - apparently not even the person supposedly perfect for you could stand against the might of the protagonist!
Shen Qingqiu's soulmark was never described in canon - and no fucking wonder. Of course the villainous teacher is someone who is matched with one of his own disciples! Disgusting . Is this why he was creeping on Ning Ying Ying in Proud Immortal Demon Way? Was he using this soulmark as an excuse for that? Did this factor into why he became a peak lord in the first place ?
That would have been an interesting addition to the plot - Shen Yuan imagines it could have become a dramatic reveal at Shen Qingqiu's trial. Too bad that, again , Airplane apparently is unable to actually write .
Of course, as interesting as that would have been, this mark only spells disaster to Shen Yuan! Never mind what Luo Binghe would do to him - the other peak lords will definitely boot him right out of Cang Qiong Peak if they find out about this! He desperately wishes that tattoo removal services were a thing in ancient China.
Shen Yuan has no interest in finding out which poor student is stuck with the scum that used to occupy this body - it's probably someone just as villainous as Shen Qingqiu is, and they're better off being separated forever anyways. No one is going to miss the original goods. He vows that this mark is never going to see the light of day if he can help it.
That is the last time Shen Yuan intends to ever think about Shen Qingqiu's soulmate.
Too bad things really never go according to plan, do they?