Chapter Text
Shen Yuan had transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way after his untimely (and frankly, embarrassing) death.
You may be wondering: Are there any downsides to transmigrating into that shitshow of a novel?
Of course there’s downsides! What are you, a fan of that piece of crap stallion novel!? He’s in Proud Immortal Demon Way, what more could be said regarding that matter!?
Since Shen Yuan’s undesired arrival in the world, he had been purposely overly-cautious of all the possible mishaps that one could conceivably find themselves in within a world of such a sort. It was, frankly, utterly annoying to have a constant barrage of worries hanging over his head (read: he has an intense fear of accidentally stepping into some wife-plot-related sex pollen plant. Thankfully, thus far, his near encyclopedic knowledge of what little lore and world building existed in PIDW outside of papapa-shenanigans had helped him once or twice with avoiding that during his time in this godforsaken world. Win!).
On the verse side, you may now be wondering if there are any boons to being transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way. Well, if you could imagine there to be any or if you were perhaps the type of person to always believe the glass to be half full, there were actually some to be found.
Shen Yuan, according to his current calculations, had discovered that he had transmigrated well before the protagonist's birth, although he could not exactly pinpoint where in the pre-Binghe timeline he was, especially considering Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky didn’t even think to bother with an important thing such as a solid timeline besides giving some back stories to some of the more milf-y harem members (and even those were all over the place at best) when it didn’t involve the star of the world, Luo Binghe. And as far as Shen Yuan had heard, there was nothing even slightly pertaining to any heavenly demons in the current circulating gossip and no news of such had been reported for at least a century, according to local town folk he sometimes came across.
The other benefit was that, unlike some transmigration novels Shen Yuan had read in his past life, he did not actually transmigrate into a pre-existing character, much to his relief. He had not even transmigrated into a child and been forced to relive his life (not that taking over a child’s life is less of a thing to feel bad about); instead his story in the PIDW universe had started with him simply being dropped in the middle of a random flower field by a System who then informed him of all who he was in this world before promptly fucking off forever.
And so, what he knew of all he was in the universe was this: ‘Shen Yuan’ in PIDW was a young man who was just a few years younger than he himself had been before he had died (appearing to be at least sixteen) and had already developed a decent knack for cultivation. While his new cultivation was nothing entirely spectacular compared to the colorful cast of characters that appeared in PIDW, it was still a cut above the random NPCs that would come this way or that to harass the protagonist (although it was no achievement of his own, he couldn’t help but preen at his skill regardless). He had no mortal attachments or relationships to any of the NPCs either, but could be considered an amateur rogue cultivator who had thus far made any progress in his cultivation solely through random seniors he came across being willing to impart him with knowledge for some service or another, all of which was now passed on to the Shen Yuan that now inhabited this body through the original’s made up memories.
After telling him all that he needed to know, as said already, the System disappeared, and it did so without so much as telling him a direction to take to get out of the random field it dropped him in. That asshole! It was then, still sitting on the ground as he stewed in his momentary annoyance, that Shen Yuan felt something swish behind him, stirring up the petals of the flowers he was sitting on causing him to almost jump out of his skin in fright.
With shoulders raised near his ears, he had slowly turned around to see what had disturbed the flowers, praying that it was not a snake, only to see a brown tail with black stripes ending in a pure white tip. The scariest thing of all was that… this tail was attached to Shen Yuan! Ah! He had totally forgotten that Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had also made PIDW a novel where everyone had animal traits because who, of his many, many, many horny followers, could not or would not get behind a 20th bunny-girl or dog-girl just waiting to be collared or to have this or that appendage tugged at during a rough session of papapa upon entering the protagonist's harem!? In fact, there were many, many PIDW quizzes online for fans to take to figure out what animal species they would be in the PIDW-universe.
Ahem, not that Shen Yuan ever took said quizzes or had thoughts about what he would be himself because that would have totally been cringe. But others in the forums, taking it upon themselves to assign something to the novel’s most notorious hater, had insisted he’d be a foul-mouthed and sharp-tongued snake. Simply enough, Shen Yuan had leaned into it just to be controversial and annoy the others with the fact that he wasn’t offended.
However, not in a million years would Shen Yuan have thought that the animal that suited his personality best was a -- he felt the ears atop his head, recognizing their triangular shape and the little extra bits of fluff at their tips for what they undoubtedly were -- ugh! How embarrassing! Shen Yuan seemed to be a housecat! If he were to be a cat, at least couldn’t he be something cool like a tiger or even a Pallas cat!?! But he very unfortunately recognized the pattern on his tail (his tail!) for what it was… that is, nothing special.
It wasn’t as if a cat were a bad thing to be in PIDW, no, quite the opposite. While, yes, you can imagine how many harem members were cat-girls who had this bell kink or that tail pulling kink on top of it being one of the more expressive and readable animals you could be in this universe when considering their tails and ears, it absolutely could have been worse. But still, becoming something you had come to associate with a great deal of dirty things was not exactly thrilling to Shen Yuan. In his mortification of it all, he could only cover his face with his hands, tipping backwards into the field of flowers, and groaning in misery at the cruelty of it all. He almost wished he were a shitty rodent like the scum villain of the novel, Shen Qingqiu, was. At least being a rodent wasn’t something considered so cute or d-d-desirable or even ‘tameable’…
He looked around and found a lake nearby that he could further observe his new features with. The water was clear and beautiful, especially in the setting of it so close to the field of flowers he woke up in. Settling on his knees and poking his head over the edge, he saw that he shared the same face as his past life, although he looked a little more filled out than he had been at that particular age. His eyes were still the same hazelly-green and his lips, nose, and eyebrows were the same shape. The system had even thoughtfully given him a pair of glasses so he could continue to see (although it would have been nice if it also thoughtfully gave him perfect eyesight, but beggars couldn’t exactly be choosers. The cat ears that were on his head were the same shade of brown as his tail and hair with matching black stripes and the tips ending in little extra black tufts of fur. Man, it was weird to see himself without ears, well, human ears.
If Shen Yuan’s sister could see him now, he just knew she would smack him for not being appreciative of his new traits given just how much magical girl self insert fanart she drew of herself with cat ears. But dear meimei, don’t blame your big brother for agonizing about not being the cool snake others thought him to be.
It took several more minutes of silently bemoaning his fate to himself before Shen Yuan finally stood up, dusting his robes and hair free of flower petals and silently patting the sword resting at his hip. The System, before it had left, had also left him with a spirit sword and he found that it was actually quite beautiful. But having pulled out the sword and viewing the engraving written on its hilt, his lips could help but twitch in anger. The engraving was a rather simple and certainly undignified ‘Mimi’ ( 咪咪)*. Having much rathered had fun with his new sword at this moment, perhaps practicing what swings this body remembered, the mood was very unfortunately ruined at the sight of the engraving. Shen Yuan instead could not resist the grit of his teeth (half paying attention to the fact that his canines felt a bit sharper) and shoved his sword right back in its sheath with an angry clatter, swearing to never allow another soul to ever see such an unfortunate name. Fuck the System and its pranks!!
With all that being said, after Shen Yuan’s initial reaction to his misfortunate passing and even more misfortunate transmigration, he began wandering on his own, eventually finding his way out of the seemingly never-ending field and to civilization before learning all that he could about the world he found himself. He even went on night hunts here and there for the villages he passed through and exorcized a few ghosts as well, earning a small reputation for himself and enough money to rarely be hurting for lodging or food. Quite honestly, although hating his situation, he found this kind of thing thrilling in the same way one would if they suddenly found themselves to be transformed into a strong superhero. His confidence was through the roof!
Despite living through all these experiences and knowing that Luo Binghe had not been born yet, Shen Yuan was still no closer to identifying where exactly he was in the plot timewise. By the time a year had passed and he had turned 17 in this world, he had simply given up actively trying and decided to wholeheartedly live his best life until something happened to change the trajectory of his current path, all while praying that he was alive hundreds of years before anything in the plot went down and that nothing so earth-shatteringly stupid as the things that happened within it would actually come to pass in his lifetime. Hell, if he was lucky perhaps by the time something did happen he would have ascended from the mortal plane already or became a cherished master too valuable to simply cut down.
A man could dream.
He even eventually got used to his fate as a cat, and even discovered that amongst the cat featured people he came across, his coloring was pretty plain and nothing worth coveting (another win for Shen Yuan!). Those kind folks also helped him understand certain impulses he may have while tutting over the ‘poor kit with no mother to have taught him’. Well, whatever they decided to believe was no matter to him especially when such a thing ended up with him being plied with all sorts of treats at the end of the day, even when it came at the cost of his hair and fur constantly being fussed with by those same ones supplying the treats.
This is of course not to mention that after rescuing more than three bunny-featured people who had been kidnapped by demonic cultivators looking to make a profit off a ‘lucky foot’ or two, Shen Yuan could safely say he was more than fortunate to have not been given that kind of fate. It wasn’t common nor exceedingly rare to see rabbit featured mortals with permanent crutches.
Thus, after having lived in Proud Immortal Demon’s Way for as long as he had and eventually coming into a sense of complacency, he should have known better than to get too comfortable.
--
One day while he had been doing some private investigating for a rich local who had flagged him down for help with a local ghost problem in a town he had been passing with a promise of their own personal edition of a bestiary he’d been seeking, Shen Yuan had coincidentally run into a well-to-do sect cultivator and the gaggle of ducklings (disciples) that followed her. That is not to say that they were all young (some were veering onto Shen Yuan’s own age) nor were they all bird featured people, although one or two definitely were, more so that they all looked at the stern-faced woman in green with adoring eyes and followed her as closely as they dared before she would turn and snap at them. By the lead cultivator’s feathered ears and the long tail feather protruding out of the tail end of her robes (no pun intended), he could tell that she was some kind of bird of prey, but if Shen Yuan were to really take an educated guess, especially taking in her yellow eyes, he would assume her to be a golden hawk.
The woman and her disciples were on the same case as Shen Yuan, long ago requested by whoever was the lord of the city they were currently in, and just arriving now, apparently having their travel time hindered by the students unable to fly on a sword yet. The woman, who identified herself as Yu Qionglin, was apparently also the peak lord of Cang Qiong Mountain’s Qing Jing Peak.
And it would be an understatement to say that Shen Yuan was surprised by this turn of events! Qing Jing Peak of all places!!! Could you imagine!? That’s the place where the protagonist struggled and was tortured by the scum villain!!! But thankfully, despite all of Shen Yuan’s knowledge, he did not recognize Yu Qionglin’s name and thus assumed once more he was very, very far in the past from PIDW’s main timeline.
Ah, and when he said earlier he had run into the group, it was more like one of her disciples passed by and rather carelessly (and painfully stepped) onto Shen Yuan’s tail. His tail was rather long for his size, unfortunately, despite the other cat featured people he had met insisting that he still had time to grow into it while pinching his cheeks and pressing another persimmon or some other fruit into his hands. This unfortunate accident had led him to bristle and despite his better manners telling him not to, whirl around and hiss at the poor disciple, hand on the hilt of his blade. Not his proudest moment.
It was at that moment that Yu Qionglin, despite her severe features and no-nonsense attitude, stepped in front of her clumsy disciple, shooing him behind herself and apologized on his behalf, asking if there were any compensation he might like for the slight. Shen Yuan had simply eyed her wearily before shaking his head and turning his eyes upwards once more to the taller woman. “There is nothing this one wants nor that he feels appropriate to demand of a senior in cultivation. However, has Senior heard of any vengeful apparitions in this area? If Senior or her disciples have any information that they would be willing to share, it would be very helpful to this one.”
And indeed, it was then that he discovered she not only had information but she and her disciples were on the same task, although apparently she had decided to take a backseat role to let her disciples learn better. Shen Yuan had nodded in understanding and traded information with the group before one particular mouse-hearted bird-featured disciple, a sparrow, suggested enlisting his aid since he was already working on the same case. Some of the younger disciples nodded eagerly, after Yu Qionglin had nodded sagely and added, “It is indeed wise to gain allies where one can and use them to the most of your ability.” Wow. Way to be blunt about taking advantage of other people right in front of them! But Shen Yuan had to grudgingly agree that the advice was pretty solid even if he was the one being used.
Shen Yuan was not hurting for money, but if Cang Qiong Mountain solved the case first, they alone would reap whatever rewards the local lord decided to bestow on them. Thus, he decided to accompany the group of young Qing Jing disciples and show them what ropes he had already gotten the hang of when working on similar cases, hoping to benefit from at least some reward for the efforts and time he had already sunk into this mission.
Plus… it probably wouldn’t hurt to be owed some sort of favor by Cang Qiong Mountain, no matter how humbly he acted earlier.
(Is what the Shen Yuan of that time thought, not quite anticipating that the nature of favor — as it would be repaid in a few days’ time — would not exactly be beneficial to him, at least in his opinion.)
To make matters a little less confusing, by the time the ghost had been defeated, he had apparently somehow earned not only Yu Qionglin’s attention but also her approval, unbeknownst to him at the time.
By the time the mission had wrapped up and he had received his promised bestiary from the local he initially received the request from, she had all but insisted that Shen Yuan join her party back to Cang Qiong Mountain. It was sorely tempting, don’t get Shen Yuan wrong, but why would he specifically want to go to the place where the protagonist was destined to end up, even if such an event was still far in the future? He wasn’t stupid . No way did he want acquaintances of such a sort even close to himself, just a favor or request he could call upon in the future was more than enough for him, thank you very much! But then again, seeing such an important location from the novel in person and even being invited in as a guest was so, so tempting for an anti-fan like him.
His tail couldn’t help but flick in interest as he pondered accepting such an invitation.
However, the amount of time he took to consider seemed to grate on what little politeness Yu Qionglin had extended to him, especially with one of her littler disciples, a golden retriever if Shen Yuan had to guess, tugging anxiously at her shizun’s sleeves asking if ‘the nice rogue cultivator was going to accompany them home’ while simultaneously offering her shizun the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster, wagging her golden tail all the meanwhile.
It seemed that the stern faced woman melted in the face of cute stickiness even if it did not show on her face. Instead, all Shen Yuan saw was her eyebrows furrowing a little deeper before she turned to Shen Yuan and promptly picked him up by the back of his clothes and lifted him much like one would a naughty kitten. He certainly did not let out an undignified noise as he was hefted by the giant woman and all but placed nicely into one of the three carriages that would be bringing her and her disciples home.
“Since you cannot make up your mind, I shall make the decision for you. A young one should always take advantage of any advantageous opportunities presented to them, especially ones as prestigious as those extended to you by the Qing Jing Peak lord herself. Take this as a free lesson, little one, and accept your fate. You can always change your mind later.” was all she had said before the sparrow disciple sat at the head of the carriage and urged the horses on to begin the long journey back to Cang Qiong Mountain before Shen Yuan even had the chance to scramble up from where he had been placed.
Shen Yuan simply sat shell-shocked as the curtain fell and Yu Qionglin left, going to her own private carriage and leaving Shen Yuan to babysit the younger disciples who all flocked to him and wheedled him cutely for more information about himself and his adventures the second they were able. It seems they took very seriously to heart the lesson their shizun imparted to them in taking advantage of allies in every way that they could.
But… it wasn’t all that bad, Shen Yuan supposed.
He did always have a fondness for children courtesy of his precocious yet precious younger sister, but it certainly was charming being able to see their reactions as well in their animalistic features; a tail wag here, an unconscious chirp there, ah it was all so cute! Ahem, not that Shen Yuan wasn’t a manly man but anyone would find such things adorable! Not to mention that if there was an excuse given to talk endlessly about his interests in flora and fauna to a captive audience, then Shen Yuan certainly wasn’t one to shy away from the opportunity!
Thus Shen Yuan unknowingly sealed his fate with Cang Qiong Mountain and Qing Jing Peak.