Work Text:
Sect Leader Shen Yuan’s Tips To Surviving
Shen Yuan died after choking on water, that’s right. There was no sudden sickness, no getting hit by a bus, simply choking on water. He had dreams and goals in life, getting a girlfriend, graduating university and becoming a teacher. Simple things that he didn’t get to achieve due to an early death.
He woke up in an empty shed in a child’s body with a note beside him in appalling handwriting. He left the shed and note ready to explore what his new life had to offer, the ‘system’ appeared and guided him where he needed to go; a gloomy place resembling a graveyard.
The system told him one thing: “Revitalize the chéng xiān gate sect.”
Shen Yuan would rather explore what the world had in store for him but, the system changed his mind as soon as it mentioned there was a gacha system, which he could use for cultivation cheats. That was how he easily accepted his new life, goodbye dear loving sister, my loveable family, this Shen Yuan of yours was going to speed run life.
The first 10 years of his brand new life was a shit fest. The system would only keep him alive and help him with basic cultivation, all his points were spent on clean robes and food to eat — he hadn’t even been given the chance to use the promised gacha system — The only thing he could do was upgrade his small house which was almost always falling apart, it was unbelievable the system even called it the only habitable place. Being the second generation rich kid he was, this could be called the greatest let down of his life, but he would tough it out just for the gacha mode.
Once he hit the age of 25 and a bottle neck in his cultivation, he begrudgingly turned his focus to the quests that piled up throughout the years. With the help of the system he made the main hall and some disciple dorms large enough for 15 people. Even his home got a much needed renovation.
Shen Yuan followed the systems instructions with precision. When it came to finding children and young teens to migrate into his sect, the issue that came with this was his lack of spare techniques to teach. The system seemed to take pity on him and the gacha mode was finally opened, he would only get one free roll a day, if he wanted to do more it was 100 points each.
He only had 500 points, he sniffed, one roll a day it was — well three didn’t hurt.
At the age of 26 the system shut gacha mode down, Shen Yuan spent more than he saved, a shame really. The good part was that the techniques he got from the system were good enough for his disciples, they came to idolize him as if he saved them from living an unfortunate life. Shen Yuan benefitted from this too, he got an epic rated technique that got him out from his bottle neck, a win-win situation he called it.
It felt like he was losing track of time by the age of 44, he was basically over 57 years old now which would seem much older if he were still in his previous life. His black hair which he swore sometimes shone white, was still silky and went down to his lower back, he had no wrinkles, stood tall and was more than healthy.
One of the few issues he encountered?
Sects would attempt to start sudden wars with them over the smallest trifles, his youngest disciple had accidentally found a spiritstone that belonged to one of the lower sects and they had immediately become sworn enemies. Sometimes he hated the cultivation world with a passion.
Other than that, the sect was thriving, Shen Yuan renovated more and more of the sect buildings during the years. The previous bug infested house was now befitting of a lofty sect leader, the dorms for inner and outer disciples were completed, and the great hall was made to near perfection. That wasn’t enough to satisfy the system or give him free reign over the gacha mode — which he was given access to once every other week — the new goal was to gather more teachers, a second medical practitioner and finally 200 more disciples.
Shen Yuan set his plan into motion immediately, he put up posters around all the towns and villages nearby the sect, it was a pretty basic plan that didn’t work out too well. There weren’t any medical practitioners that specialized in working with cultivators to join the sect, teachers and disciples we’re on the easier side to join his sect, they were a bunch of rouge cultivators looking for somewhere to settle down and also integrate their children into the sect with them.
After 4 years of searching for another sect doctor, he decided to just let some disciples study under the current one or ship them off to the alchemist group and see how well they fared.
Then she showed up, a woman whose face was covered by a purple veil, ‘Liu Mingyan’. Shen Yuan was suspicious of her almost immediately, she was the missing apprentice of Mu Qingfang that was supposed to be the next peak lord of… whatever it was. Shen Yuan could not give two shits as she droned on about her back story. Why would an ex-future peak lord of the biggest sect want to join a sect that was not the best or grandest.
Her answer to that was, “I’m fucking sick and tired of being in that stuffy ass place, If guns existed I would have shot down my crazy admirers from xian shu peak.” She said in the most down right tired voice he had ever heard in his 61 years of life, but she had mentioned guns and Shen Yuan connected the dots that she was also reincarnated just like him.
They spent days chatting about everything and anything related to what they remembered about their past lives, it was almost promised that she would teach medical skills to the disciples and join the sect.
Liu Mingyan was a great addition to the sect, the disciples loved her, the teachers loved her and more importantly she did a fair share of his personal paperwork.
Shen Yuan would catch her eyeing him with something similar to curiosity, he had been printing out paperwork in his office, ignoring the feeling of a burning stare on his backside.
He whipped around and she looked away.
“Bro, do you have something to say?” He asked.
Liu Mingyan looked at him again, “You look like Shen shibo but less ethereal with sharper features and less stuck up,“ She said bluntly.
Shen Yuan didn’t know Liu Mingyan’s ‘Shen Shibo’, as far as he knew there was the Qing jing peak lord Shen Qingqiu, but Shen Yuan doubted they looked so similar. He had not once seen any of the peak lords or sect leader from the generation after the one he met during his 20’s. He was sure he didn’t have any siblings, unless it involved his missing memory from before the age of 10.
“Aren’t you supposed to be doing paperwork Mingyan?” He asked, pointing at the stacked pile of paper in front of her.
She sniffed, “I finished already. This is just my BL novel draft,” she said proudly. Shen Yuan didn’t deign her with a response and instead took his paperwork from the printer and left the office; his own office Liu Mingyan stationed herself in to write her novel.
He probably should have asked more about this Shen Shibo of hers, especially if he would end up regretting not doing so 3 years later.
At the age of 64 he was meeting his younger brother, the system being the ass you that it was, returned the memories of his first 10 years of life, but was it necessary for him to nearly ascend just to unlock his memories?
The morning of his 64th birthday Liu Mingyan crashed into his home with a cake, when she uttered the words ‘happy birthday’ a giant beam of light shot down at Shen Yuan and he began floating. Liu Mingyan screamed for the devil himself and he joined her,
“oh heavens have mercy this one has yet to freely unlock the gacha mode, I can’t ascend now!” He said, in between high pitched screeches.
The light in the home dimmed for a minute then spread even more, the panicked yelling intensified and stretched to the whole sect.
Was this the heavens wrath for rejecting them? Shen Yuan could feel the tremors of the sect grounds, this was way too fucking extreme!
Just an incense stick of time later the light disappeared and Shen Yuan had fell onto the floor as gracefully as possible.
After that day, the chéng xiān gate sect was in a complete mess, what came with the beam of light was a complete upgrade of the sect, spare of charge luckily.
Shen Yuan had woken up nearly 7 days later with the addition of his memories that he missed before the age of 10. Sorting them out was a real pain in the ass, maybe he would have time to do so before Liu Mingyan came crashing in.
He felt off balance after standing up, it was as if his feet weren’t touching the ground, which shouldn’t have been possible?
The system told him that due to delaying his ascension the sect grounds received a godly blessing instead, he received his own blessing in the form of power befitting a minor god — which holy shit that was cool — he had to brag to Liu Mingyan. Shen Yuan lowered himself more to plant his feet on the ground just as his door opened revealing the veiled woman.
“Bro… Sect Leader.” Liu Mingyan said, coughing to cover up her slip up.
She waltzed inside, pulling one of the ‘guests’ with her in, the other stepped into the room as if he owned it — but, when did Shen Yuan have a doppelgänger?
Liu Mingyan looked between them and then politely excused herself with who he assumed to be the older brother she constantly bragged about to him.
The other guest left in the room tapped the green fan in his hand against his chin, “Shen Yuan, you look just as how mother described you, white hair resembling hers and the green eyes of our father.” He sneered.
That was one way to call him out and what was with the hostility — wait, white hair? Hello? Maybe he should’ve looked at a mirror before Liu Mingyan had the chance to get into his room.
Shen Yuan stared at his features, grumbled and then sighed longingly. “I can explain my disappearance,” he hesitated. “including any other things you have to ask me.”
The man who he could now confidently think of as Shen Jiu seemed to tense, he watched him flick his fan open with one motion and hide his face.
”Explain everything, do not leave a single detail out, people seem to always do that when speaking to me.” Shen Jiu said flatly, Shen Yuan could already compare him to a prickly cat.
What came after that was easily accepting he had a brother nearly 10 years younger than him that he’d never met, alongside the information of his apparent dead mother who told stories to the young Shen Qingqiu about his supposed dead older brother.
He told him exactly what he could remember, their mother saying that Shen Qingqiu would be named Shen Jiu when he was born — all because of Shen Yuan’s naming sense — losing his memories the day after, waking up in the empty shed with a note that had terrible writing on it, leaving the shed and then starting his own life after memory loss.
Shen Yuan knew it would take much more work than this to form a better relationship with Shen Jiu but, he didn’t mind taking it slow,. “Didi should visit six times a month to make up for lost time.”
Shen Jiu seemed to abhor the simple idea of that before giving in, “assuming you’re no liar I’ll give you a chance, I won’t sugarcoat anything or -“ he gripped his fan and looked away, “Shen Yuan, you have a single chance do not make me regret it.” He snapped like a defensive cat.
In return the older snorted.
That was the day his family expanded, it left him feeling giddy. Shen Jiu stayed the whole month saying he was just making sure Shen Yuan could be trusted with anything he said. He doubted that was the actual reason, but didn’t dare say anything against the younger.
…
The years between that and his 100th birthday passed by like a blur, his sect knocked Huan Hua palace, Tian Yi Overlook and Zhao Hua Temple down, quickly taking second place in the great sects right behind cang qiong.
It wouldn’t take much work if he wanted to surpass them, but he wasn’t interested in having a childish fight with his brother about the sect leader Yue Qingyuan who Shen Jiu vehemently claimed he hated, Shen Yuan didn’t believe him for a second and laughed in his face.
A few months after that another person who had reincarnated joined the duo, he was Liu Mingyan’s Shang Shibo, Shen Yuan usually saw them writing BL together in his office as if they had nothing better to do. Shang Qinghua literally lived and worked at Cang Qiong mountain, why was he always here?
Shen Yuan complained and complained but life was pretty good for him, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
At the ripe age of 100 there were bigger fish to fry, what would that be?
The gacha mode! He had officially completed the main quest of his life and now had unlimited access! There were many problems that came with this, one being his unfathomable bad luck.
Chéng Xiān Gate Sect
The great hall was filled with periwinkle and white decorations, there was a marble throne at the back of the hall with a soft cushion on it.
There were four pillars covered with preservation arrays that kept the hall together even after the countless attacks from sects they had to face, the floor that would occasionally have blood splattered on it was made out of rosewood that complimented the hall along with a white carpet made out of beast hide that stretched from the doors to the marble throne.
Now in the middle of the hall stood the half god sect leader and his trustee head disciple.
The inner disciples and secondary head disciple sat further away, taking spots near the tall pillars.
“Yingying, come closer for a minute.”
“Yes, Sect leader!”
Shen Yuan placed his palms on Ning Yingying’s soft ones, she was going to be his good luck charm today for his next gacha rolls with the system.
Yesterday’s final roll nearly sent him, a literal god, into what felt like a qi deviation. He refused to have another common item in his inventory.
[Yesterday] The Great Hall
“Sect Leader!” Ming Fan burst into the great hall with renowned fervour, “I broke through! —“
Congratulations host ,
you have rolled a common item hammer .
Shen Yuan grabbed the hammer, Somersaulted and whipped it at Ming Fan’s stomach, “you damned noisy brat!”
Ming Fan spat blood when the hammer made an impact, the sect leader would feel remorseful if it weren’t for the fact he just rolled another common item for 100 points.
The inner disciples stationed in the hall made ‘ooh’s’ and ‘Ah’ sounds as Ming Fan’s body tumbled right back out the hall.
They clapped as their sect leader brushed off imaginary dust from his white robes and grumbled about ‘useless children’.
[Present] The Great Hall
Shen Yuan doubted anything could ruin his rolls today, Ning Yingying herself was something akin to a good luck magnet. She would randomly find gold and black diamond ore on accident whenever she left the mountain, Shen Yuan called her the ‘quest completer’. If he desired to find something for a mini quest from the system all he had to do was tell her and somehow she’d return with it. A goddess reincarnation!
Host, are you ready to begin
your daily failure?
No, he refused to fail today.
Shen Yuan craned his neck to look at Ming Fan who sat by a pillar, the kid held a lit torch in hand and wore a hat that said, ‘I will never interrupt the sect leader, I am an idiot.’
“I love my disciples!” He thought, a satisfied smirk on his face.
Deciding to forget about that unruly disciple of his, it was time to gacha. Shen Yuan steeled himself and settled his expression, this roll would show the system that he wasn’t a sign of bad luck.
“Yingying ready?”
She nodded completely in the zone, “of course shizun,” she chirped back happily.
The adult and young girl closed their eyes and posed as if they were doing the tango with their palms pressed together. The inner disciples and Ming Fan clapped their hands together and prayed, avoiding their sect leader’s wrath was the only way to get out of the great hall safely after all.
‘Let us begin the rolls system!’ The system whirred to life, the gacha popped up instantly.
500 points have been deducted.
Common 45%
Rare 30%
Ultra-Rare 20%
Epic 4%
Legendary 1%
5 rolls starting now..
Shen Yuan subconsciously bit his lip, after decades of not rolling anything above ultra-rare he was sure today would be the day he was successful. His white hair was out of its usual low ponytail just in case a failed pill from the apothecary was thrown through the window, undid his hair and made him roll a common item, that was something which happened frequently.
There was no Ming Fan to burst inside and ruin anything, no other sect leader storming in to start a war then getting their ass kicked upside down for making him roll a rare item. It was as if they were doing a seance, without the whole speaking to the dead part, he was sure if news got out about that the sects who held grudges against him would charge over here immediately.
News flash, Shen Yuan was not going to go out of his way to make amends with those boring old coots.
He watched as the gachapon began with attentive eyes, he and Ning Yingying held the tango dip pose perfectly. The system chimed as five capsules rolled out, this was it, this was the day he finally had a stroke of luck, courtesy of the girl holding him, but luck nonetheless.
Shen Yuan gulped anxiously, the machine disappeared from the system screen leaving the five capsules on display. ‘Open them system.’
The system went in order, starting with the capsule on the left, he watched as it grew bigger and slowly opened.
Congratulations host,
you have rolled a rare item, Charm of five ruined beasts.
Shen Yuan internally screamed, a tear slid down his cheek, ‘what the hell is this shit for?’
The charm of five ruined beasts locates any
mutated beasts in a 2 li radius.
It was basically useless, the system would usually detect the mutated beast for him using the GPS setting, this was way too cheap, even for the system. Nothing to worry about, he still had this in the bag, onto the next capsule.
…
Congratulations host,
you have rolled 2 common items, Feather of the fox phoenix & red clown nose.
Blood trickled out Shen Yuan’s mouth and down his chin from how hard he bit down into his lip from agony, three out of five had been below ultra rare, this was completely unfair, he wanted a refund. Ning Yingying gasped quietly, “Shizun, Should I let go? You’re bleeding!” She said alarmed.
The sect leader shook his head, “never let go good luck charm,” He thought numbly, sending a small burst of qi to her.
Two more left, it had to give him something to work with here, the system seemed to favour this ward of his immensely after all. The second last capsule glowed, Ning yingying’s left hand wrapped around his in a tight grip.
‘that’s my Yingying! Bring us success!’
Congratulations host!
you have rolled a legendary item! *** ********.
Shen Yuan pulled himself up, removing himself from Ning Yingying’s grasp. He twitched slightly, holding himself back from kissing the ground she walked on, that would be creepy you know - ew.
He cackled maniacally, the disciples in the hall felt chills down their spines as their sect leader laughed to himself. “Shizun? Should we, you know…”
”My lovely disciples, today is a free day, go down the mountain, have some fun in the town!”
The disciples in question panicked, had he finally gone mad? They loved their sect leader dearly but sometimes he’d stare into space and then cry out about how unlucky he was, it was learned the hard way to stay out of his sight at all times during those moments.
Shen Yuan slowly turned to them, a scary smile on his face, his eyes turned crescent as he spoke, “I said, go.”
The disciples bowed in sync, quickly squealing out their goodbyes and rushing out of the great hall, only the two head disciples were still there awaiting his orders.
“Ming Fan, you can remove the hat and join your fellow disciples.” He turned to Ning Yingying who smiled brightly at him, “Yingying, call your teacher Liu and Shang Qinghua for me,” he said, ruffling her hair.
The head disciples looked at each other, bowed to him and quickly trailed after the inner disciples.
Shen Yuan turned his sparkling eyes back to the system, the last gacha roll he had didn’t matter in the eyes of this. When Liu Mingyan saw this she would have a blast trying it out on Shang Qinghua, which Shen yuan would probably have to stop later on.
He had to get to work.
Liu Mingyan made her way up the cloud like stairs leading to the great hall, Shang Qinghua following behind her still wary of falling off the steps even after 20 years.
What would Shen Yuan show them this time, would it be another hammer to whip at his disciple so Liu Mingyan had to deal with the aftermath which included patting said disciple on the back and going to sleep right after? Possibly.
When she reached the top of the stairs she looked back at Shang Qinghua who gulped and nodded, mentally prepared for whatever onslaught they’d have to receive. She wrapped her hand around the cool metals of the building and pulled it open.
On instinct she dodged what flew in her direction, Liu Mingyan and Shang Qinghua walked in, Shen Yuan was holding a fucking SLR — he had a loaded gun!
Shen Yuan lowered the gun, “Thoughts on my new baby boy?” He asked while tittering.
Liu Mingyan made quick steps over to him and took it out of his hold, “bro, this is sick….” She mumbled, gliding her hand over butt of the gun.
“You can have this one, I’ll have to find black diamond ore to make five more so I can unlock auto production.” Shen Yuan said.
Liu Mingyan nodded dazedly, she lifted the gun and properly positioned it, aiming at Shang Qinghua who was stiff frozen at the entrance. Shang Qinghua laughed nervously, “Mingyan, let’s rethink this!” He said.
“No time, start dodging.” She responded, pressing her finger down on the trigger.
Shang Qinghua screamed as a bullet nearly grazed his head, he began running as the trigger happy woman kept shooting, “Shen bro save me!”
Shen Yuan looked away, this was a fight between men, he had no right to intervene. What he could do was pick what gun he would produce next! This was going to be so fun!
“Shang Qinghua stop running.”
”you’re crazy! Someone save me!”
“guys please calm down so I can pick what to make in peace — MINGYAN! That’s my prized throne cushion aim properly!”
The teachers outside the great hall shuddered, they were going to ask where all the disciples had run off to but, maybe that was a question for another day - no, another week.
Their sect leader and teacher Liu truly were crazy people.