Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

The endless abyss from the famous Proud immortal Demon Way stallion novel by great bastard airplanes shooting towards the sky, a realm on the boundary between the Human and Demon Realm; A liminal space, full of peril and the unknown, this is where Luo Binghe was kicked down by Shen Qingqiu. While there, he found the Xin Mo sword and learned of his demonic heritage. He spent 5 years, training and learning otherworldly techniques before finally escaping.

'THIS CANT BE HAPPENING' shen yuan thought, in a daze, for what must have been the tenth time. He rubbed his eyes a little too aggressively, but when the spots finally faded from his vision, the source of his disbelief remained.

[WELCOME TO PROUD IMMORTAL DEMON WAY USER 00, UNFORTUNATELY DO TO SOME ERRORS USER HAS BEEN TRANSMIGRATED TO A BODY THE SYSTEM MADE AND UNFORTUNATELY IN THE ENDLESS ABYSS, SORRY 😞]

"... WHAT THE-" 

After a couple of minutes of completely freaking out and finally managing to calm down, Shen Yuan recalls what just happened. He had just finished reading the last chapter of Proud Immortal Demon Way, and honestly? It was garbage. First off, Binghe his “best boi” was hinted to be killed by his hundreds of wives in the future, which is absolute bullshit. Second, the story was riddled with plot holes, half-baked backstories, and lazy writing that Airplane just tossed aside in favor of reason number three: the papapa scenes. Those were the only things keeping fans defending the novel’s trash plot. “Fucking sex deviants,” Shen Yuan muttered. And then, out of nowhere, he blacked out—only to wake up plummeting from the sky. Somehow, he survived the fall and now finds himself in this godforsaken place: the endless abyss.

Shen yuan sighs at himself and suddenly realized something "um, system! What happened to my body?! Back on earth" shen yuan asked waiting nervously

[USER DIED IN YOUR ORIGINAL WORLD BECAUSE OF YOUR RAGE OF THE PIDW NOVEL'S ENDING, YOUR ORIGINAL BODY IS DEAD USER]

"Ho-Ho-How do I get b-back!? I... I n-need to get b-back h-home!" His throat tightened. Shen yuan wanted to see his family again he didnt want to be stuck in PIDW, while he would have loved to see luo binghe in the flesh he knew very well his fate this world would either be a painful death or worse.

[UNFORTUNATELY SYSTEM CANNOT DO THAT AS USER'S ORIGINAL BODY IS DEAD AND THERES NOTHING THIS SYSTEM CAN DO]

...

[IS USER OK?]

The system's words echoed in Shen Yuan’s mind like a distant voice, distant and indifferent. His chest tightened with something heavier than just disbelief.

The cold, unforgiving weight of reality pressed down on him, suffocating in its truth. He had… died. He got so mad at the terrible ending of Proud Immortal Demon Way that it had taken his life. He had hated the book so much, hated how it ended so horribly, how it wasted the potential of his favorite character, Binghe, but now? Now he was here, in this liminal nightmare, with no way back.

A sudden shudder wracked his body. His breath hitched, ragged and sharp, as tears welled up. He couldn’t control them, couldn’t stop the sobs that started tearing through him. His mind tried to fight it, to maintain some semblance of composure, but it was useless. The moment the finality of the system’s message sank in.

"I... I want to go home," he muttered between stifled sobs, his voice barely audible over the overwhelming emptiness surrounding him. He dropped to his knees, the rough, jagged ground scraping his knees, he buried his face in his hands trying to hide from this cruel, unfathomable reality as he lays down on the ground.

He couldn't even be angry. Not now. What was there to be angry at? The system for sending him here, airplane for writing PIDW, or Himself for being so stupidly invested in the piece of trash writing, for having shitty health, for not taking care of himself even when his family told him to?

But the more he thought about it, the worse it became. He wanted to see his family again. To hear the sound of his parents's voice, to laugh with his big brothers. To feel the warmth of his little sister's hugs again.

He curled into himself, the deep, raw pain in his chest threatening to tear him apart. His whole body trembled with each quiet sob. 

A few moments later, The system pinged again.

[USER, SYSTEM HAS SOME GOOD NEWS FOR YOU]

"Good news?" Shen Yuan choked out, barely able to lift his head. He sniffed, wiping at his face with the sleeve of his new, unfamiliar robe. "Is it something that will get me back to my original world" shen yuan said bitterly glaring at the glowing screen right at his face.

[WELL NO, AS SYSTEM SAID EARLIER SYSTEM CANNOT SEND USER'S SOUL BACK AS USER WILL JUST DIE AGAIN... BUT SYSTEM CAN OFFER YOU QUEST TO GAIN POINTS! 😊]

"Points? What can I do with points" looking at the system, he sits up looking at the screen.

[WELL USER CAN EXCHANGE THE POINTS FOR THINGS]

The system's screen flickered, then brightened, revealing a neatly arranged catalog of floating icons—books, tools, weapons, clothes. Beside each item was a small glowing label indicating their point cost.

[WHILE THIS SYSTEM CANNOT LET YOU DO MUCH AS IT MIGHT AFFECT THE PLOT, USER CAN EARN POINTS THROUGH QUESTS AND SURVIVAL. POINTS MAY BE EXCHANGED FOR USEFUL ITEMS TO INCREASE USER'S CHANCES OF NOT DYING A HORRIBLE DEATH (^_^;)]

Shen Yuan stared at the screen, still wiping his tear-streaked face with the scratchy sleeve of his robe. “So... let me get this straight,” he muttered hoarsely, eyes scanning the list. “You dump me into literal hell, after I died of raged so hard from reading a shitty novel... and now you want me to grind quests like I’m in some busted gacha game just to survive?”

[YES! (ง •̀_•́)ง SYSTEM BELIEVES IN USER'S POTENTIAL!]

…He let out a tired, broken laugh. “Ah, fuck it,” he muttered, voice low, almost defeated. “I don’t wanna die again.”

He let out a sigh and Shen Yuan forced himself to his feet. His legs wobbled at first, but then… held. He stood there for a long moment, surprised by his own stability. His chest rose and fell slow, deep, steady.

No coughing.

No tightness.

No stabbing ache under his ribs when he inhaled too deeply.

He lifted his hand and stared at it. His fingers were steady. Strong. The skin was clear, no sign of the sickly bluish-purple tint that used to cling to his fingertips.

“Huh,” he breathed softly.“…Huh.”

He lifted both arms now, rotating his shoulders slowly. No creaking joints, no dull muscle fatigue, no pain flaring down his spine. For the first time in his life, his body obeyed him fully. No pain. Just smooth, seamless motion. He dropped into a crouch, experimentally, and rose again in one swift, clean motion.

“…God,” he whispered. “Is this what it’s like to live without pain?”

He never realized how much he’d gotten used to hurting, used to being tired, to dragging himself out of bed, fighting for every breath. He remembered the endless doctor visits, the taste of iron after a coughing fit, the constant burning in his lungs. He remembered his brothers treating him like glass when his legs stopped working the way they used to and had to start using a cane from now on. He remembered his sister panicking when he collapsed one summer because his body couldn’t handle the heat. And he remembered his parents, holding him as he cried, trying to comfort him through the pain they couldn’t take away.

He remembered thinking this was it, that this was all his life would ever be.

But now?

He could breathe.

He could move.

He could run, if he wanted to.

God, he wished he’d had a body like this back home. He could’ve done so many things with his family, things he’d missed out on because of his health. But now, even though he finally had it, the people he loved would never get to see him like this.

...

[... IS USER ALRIGHT?]

"...Yeah," Shen Yuan said, voice thick, but steady as he glanced back at the floating screen. “I’m fine... ish.”

The system didn’t respond right away, as if sensing the weight behind his words.

He straightened a little, wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, and exhaled. “Alright, System. Let’s talk business. You said there were quests? What’s first on the list?”

The screen shifted with a soft ping.

[OPENING QUEST MENU]

[LOADING CURRENT OBJECTIVES…]

To be continued 

Chapter Text

"This show is awful like seriously?! We were told over and over how strong-willed the FL was but any time the narrative called for it, she was spineless.”

“I think it’s romantic," she said with a dreamy sigh. "I wish i could meet someone that made me feel that way.”

He scoffed at what his sister said. “What, brainless? You want someone to gaslight you into love? Aim higher, xiaomei.”

“Yuan-ge!” she shrieked, throwing a pillow at him.

The eldest brother laughed from the armchair. “Oh no,” he murmured. “It’s happening again.”

“Yep,” chimed in the middle brother. “The Spiral.”

“The show had a great setup! But then they made her best friend into a love rival out of nowhere—like, why?! That character had depth, she was likable, and they just yeeted her for drama!” shen yuan ranted.

“Yuan,” his sister called quietly.

He was still ranting. “Like, it’s just lazy writing! You can’t build a character up for multiple episodes and then toss them in the garbage just because some stupid fans want more angst and tension!”

“Yuan,” his oldest brother said again, gently.

“What?” he snapped.

“...You’re crying.”

…Huh?” Shen Yuan blinked, dazed.

He reached up to touch his face and froze. His fingertips came away wet. “What...? Why am I… crying?”

“Shen Yuan.” his brother said again, but this time, his voice sounded strange.

He looked up at the television screen, only to find it flickering strangely. The show was gone.

In its place was a reflection.

Him, sitting on the couch.

His siblings beside him but their faces were blurred, smudged like faulty memories in a dream that was unraveling.

“What the…?” Shen Yuan turned to look at them directly.

They didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Just stared at him with those featureless faces.

Then—

“Wake up.”

Shen Yuan opened his eyes.

He reached up, fingertips brushing the wetness on his cheeks. Tears. Again. With a quiet sigh, he sat up and turned toward the mouth of the small cave he’d taken shelter in, watching the acid rain hiss and steam as it struck the jagged ground outside.

“It’s still not over,” he muttered, voice low. He groaned and stretched stiff limbs. “System, how long was I out?”

He pushed himself to his feet, walking toward the cave’s entrance and leaning against the damp stone wall.

[USER HAS BEEN ASLEEP FOR ONLY 5 HOURS.]

'Huh. That’s the longest I’ve slept since arriving in the Abyss,' he thought, a flicker of surprise crossing his tired expression.

Shen Yuan pulled a small, battered notebook from the inner pocket of his robe, one of the first things he’d exchanged points for. The cover was worn, smudged with ash and soot from weeks of crawling through the Abyss, and the pencil tucked into the spine was sharpened down to a stub.

Flipping it open, he skimmed over the cramped notes scribbled inside observations, theories, timelines, even sketches of strange creatures he’d encountered. His handwriting had become messier with time, but it was still legible.

Day 187: Acid rain frequency increasing.

Day 72: Discovered another fragment of broken spiritual weapon. Useless, but collecting them just in case.

Day 13: Confirmed no Luo Binghe. No mention of him. No rumors. Either he’s in the abyss yet or I’m not in the current time of PIDW.

He flipped to the most recent page and stared at the last line he’d written:

I’m too early. Centuries early. The plot hasn’t even started.

Shen Yuan exhaled, resting the pencil against his chin. “stupid airplane,” he muttered. 

His fingers tightened on the edge of the notebook. Centuries before the story. Alone. Trapped in a timeline where even Airplane Bro didn’t bother putting in worldbuilding.

"stupid fucking airplane," he said slowly, eyes narrowing. "You just had to abandon your worldbuilding for fucking wife plots and sex. Tch." 

He glanced toward the mouth of the cave just as the hissing outside began to fade. The steam was thinning. The sharp chemical scent that usually burned his nose had started to dissipate.

“Finally,” he muttered.

He moved back into the cave, kneeling beside the few belongings he kept packed in a leather satchel: half-empty bottle of water, a knife, and handful of low-grade talismans he’d earned from exchanging his points. Some of the talismans were single-use barrier charms, one light talisman, and a low proximity warning seal.

He slids the notebook carefully into the bag, tucked securely beneath the folds of a spare cloth. Then he buckled the satchel shut, checked it twice, and slung it over his shoulder.

He then circled around the cave one and pulls out a couple of talismans from the side pouch of his bag, he activated them with a quiet flick of his fingers and the all burned and turn to ash and shen yuan finally leaves the cave

A few of the things Shen Yuan had learned surviving the Abyss were:

Always be on the move.

Leave no trace.

And never, ever assume you're alone.

He’d learned those the hard way.

There was the time he tried to turn a cave into a proper shelter, he cleared out space, even reinforced the walls with talismans. He’d managed to stay two nights in a row. 

On the third night, he woke up to a wet, clicking sound and the overwhelming scent of rot.

A group of cultivators based on their clothing had wandered in, their bodies move as if they were puppets because of wide-eyed black belladonna parasites that burrowed in their head to control their brain and to keep them awake to spread their kind, they kinda looked like they came from the last of us.

He’d barely escaped after lighting the entire place on fire with one of his emergency-grade fire talismans and a bottle of oil he quickly exchanged from the system. The screams still echoed sometimes in his mind.

Good thing for Luo Binghe the golden child of Airplane Bro’s terrible writing had that shiny, unbreakable protagonist halo, so he didn’t have to worry about staying on the move. Not unless the narrative needed him to suffer, of course. For angst and shit and reasons to be angry at the scum villain.

Shen Yuan, on the other hand?

He had no halo. No plot armor. No golden finger. He had to keep moving. Always.

Because if he stayed in one place for too long, he’d end up dealing with raging beast, Parasitic fungi that tried to crawl and bury itself into your spine and use your body like a marionette. Plants that either tried to digest him alive or, far worse, release pheromones that made him feel what Luo Binghe’s wives probably felt during one of Airplane Bro’s more graphically descriptive papapa scenes. That had been a horrifying three hours he would never recover from. Fierce corpses. 

Etcetera. Etcetera.

One of the few things Shen Yuan actually liked was discovering the scraps of Airplane's worldbuilding. According to the system, many of the Abyss’s monsters, plants, and others the author had planned for Proud Immortal Demon Way but had discarded in favor of harem drama, jealous wives, and smut arcs were in the abyss.

And of course Shen Yuan the critic, obsessive reader, famous anti-fan couldn’t not be curious of what airplane had created and scrapped.

“Pretty,” he muttered to himself as he picked his way around a cluster of glowing bone-flowers, their petals twitching like they were listening. ”i wonder what they can do?" He wondered and puts the flower in his hair. They didn’t pulse or flare ominously, didn’t bite, sting, or release spores, which was already a miracle by Abyss standards.

The moment it settled, a strange calm washed over him. His usual tension the dull pounding in the back of his head, the lingering ache behind his eyes from too many nights without proper sleep had eased almost immediately.

“Huh,” he murmured, blinking in surprise.

[CONGRATULATIONS USER! YOU HAVE DISCOVERED THE LISTENING LILYBONE]

[USES: NATURAL SEDATIVE, RELIEVES HEADACHES, ENHANCES FOCUS, TREATS INSOMNIA]

‘Ah, neat,’ Shen Yuan thought… and then froze. A sudden, terrible thought struck him.

Wait.

This was a flower.

Written by Airplane Bro.

A man whose idea of "character development" was adding more sex scenes.

“…It doesn’t have any weird side effects, right?” he asked suspiciously. “No aphrodisiac properties? Nothing that makes people suddenly feel the urge to spontaneously papapa or anything?”

[SYSTEM CONFIRMS THE PLANT HAS NO APHRODISIAC EFFECTS AS IT IS WRITTEN AND SCRAPPED BEFORE THE AUTHOR SOLD HIS SOUL TO WRITE MORE SMUT FOR MONEY]

"Pfft-" shen yuan let out when he heard what the system just said in its google translate voice. "Anyways you got anything new? 

The sytem then shows shen yuan its screen as shen scrolls as if he was scrolling in tiktok.

To anyone or anything else watching, the creature that fell from the sky was an anomaly. It hadn’t come through a rift. There was no warning, no crack in the sky, no pulse of energy. It had simply appeared and fell, like a star yanked violently from its constellation. 

The creature was strange. Entirely pale, almost ghostly, and clothed in cool-toned attire and its design doesnt seem to come from any sect or clans. A large, conical white hat cast its face in shadow, and a thick scarf concealed the lower half entirely, making it difficult to see what they look like. Their robe that is long, flowing, trimmed with fur rippled slightly despite the still, heavy air. Silver embroidery danced across the fabric. The sleeves were wide, decorated with threadwork. Their pants match their robe and is slightly loose-fitting.

But the most remarkable thing about this creature.

Was its wings.

Translucent and bright and are like thin crystals, they appeared and vanished at will and are sharp as blades when visible. No beast or demon had such blade-like wings like that, and there were never any techniques that can create wings. 

... did this creature fall from the heavenly realm?

to be continued 

Chapter Text

“What are you drawing now?” a voice asked, warm and curious.

Shen Yuan didn’t even pause. “The dread three-eyed otter-bison over there,” he murmured, shading in the creature’s lumpy torso. Across the cavern floor, the beast in question had cornered some poor prey and was tearing it's abdomen open.

“Ugh, that’s nasty,” came the familiar scoff of his younger sister.

“Hey, remember that nature documentary we watched?” another voice chimed in—his second brother, amused. “The one with the rhino?”

“yeah,” Shen Yuan muttered absently, scratching in the rough outline of a third eye socket.

“Mei-mei gagged and yelled, ‘to come out of an egg next time!’” his eldest brother said, his tone fond, almost laughing. 

“Nature is gross,” his sister huffed.

The pencil moved faster. Cross-hatching for muscle definition. Smudging around the creature’s mangled ribs. The pages of his notebook were already thick with these sketches, more like a bestiary than a journal now.

“Your shading’s getting better,” the eldest said conversationally. “Way better than back when you only drew Binghe.”

“I legit thought he was your boyfriend for a while,” another voice teased. “You were so obsessed with him.”

“Yeah, and then he screamed, ‘I’m not gay! Binghe sexuality is straight as a ruler!’”

A chorus of snickers followed.

Shen Yuan’s couldnt help but smile a bit as his hand faltered just slightly at that memory and went back to filling in the shadows beneath the otter-bison’s claws.

There was a quiet lull. The sound of scribbling filled it, the air thick with the faint smell of ash, blood, and moss.

Then softly: “Hey, Yuan-ge… do you even remember what Mom’s face looks like?”

Silence.

He paused for a moment, then dropped back to drawing on the page.

"Did dad have a beauty mark under the corner right eye"

"No i think it was the left"

“I don’t think he had one. What do you think, big brother?” the voice that sounds like his mei-mei’s asked brightly.

Shen yuan does not look up as he listens to their words, their voices starts to shift becoming more eerie as they continue to question his memory of their family.

“Did Mom have dimples?” his sister’s voice asked again, a little too close to his ear.

“Dad has gray eyes, didn’t he? Or… was it blue?”

“What about mei-mei? She has green eyes, doesn’t she?”

The pencil slowed, the strokes messier, trembling. His breath came shallow.

“Is my hair black,” one of his brothers asked, tone oddly warped, as if underwater, “or was it just dark brown, little brother?”

Suddenly he felt even more cold.

“Big brother?”

“Little brother.”

“Little brother?”

The voices layered over each other, overlapping, rising and falling in pitch, tones warping until they no longer sounded like his siblings at all and he starts to hear static.

“Do you remember?”

“Do you really remember us?”

Something in him cracked.

Shen Yuan send the notebook flying across the cavern and hits the stone floor. His chest heaved, vision starts to blur with hot tears as his fingers clawed at his hair, the other hand swiping furiously at his wet face.

“SHUT UP!” he screamed, the words echoed throughout the empty cavern.

The static snapped off.

Silence.

He forced his head up, teeth grit, eyes wide and searching-

There was nothing. Just his own ragged breathing loud filling the silence. His notebook layed there open to a sketch of a family of six. Their bodies were outlined carefully, almost lovingly but every face had been scribbled out in frantic, heavy strokes.

Shen Yuan pressed both hands against his face, trying to hold himself together, his chest became heavy. His shoulders shook. He missed them so much. He couldnt stop crying. He couldn't stop. He couldn't...

[USER?]

One of the most common sounds in the Abyss were screams. Sometimes they came from beasts locked in savage battles for dominance or food. Other times, they came from the plants.

For example: the Turquoise Tear Choir Narcissus; a flower that had once tricked him with its wails sounding like a person, desperate and pained, that he’d foolishly followed them heart hammering with hope that he wasn’t alone.

What he found instead was disappointment... and acid.

So imagine his surprise when, while flying through the ash filled skies, he spotted people far below, screaming and running.

'Is this for real???' Shen Yuan thought, stomach twisting.

It had to be a trick. It always was.

The Abyss had taught him better than to trust so easily.

It could be beasts like the Demonic Pair of Giant Lovedoves that he had somehow escaped from, those massive dove-like beasts that circled high above the dark clouds, feathers somehow always white as snow. They were honestly one of the most fascinating creatures in Proud Immortal Demon Way as they were a true pair, partners in every sense. Unlike the protagonist’s so-called “wives,” who inevitably devolved into damsels in distress the moment the plot calls for it, even the most competent wives like Liu Mingyan or Sha Hualing suddenly were useless, the Lovedoves fought side by side as equals. They hunted together, killed together, lived and died together.

Their song is one of the things that made them terrifying. Victims would hear and see the things they desired the most and are suddenly in front of the 2 beast and ripped apart and ate their meat like if they are on a date and sharing their food.

Or maybe it was a flora or a fungus like Moonrot Widow’s Veil, that spore-born fungus he’d stumbled across that is quite common in this part of the abyss. Its silvery threads hanging on the rocks and trees looked harmless and pretty, but a single breath of its spores causes hallucinations and slowly hollowed a person out from the inside, turning their body into nothing more than a vessels covered in shrooms to spread the spores further, luckily he knew what they were the second he saw them as they’d played a massive role in a actually well written wife plot, Wife #307. Luo Binghe had dealt with an entire village acting “strangely optimistic,” all cheer and laughter, ever since they discovered a corpse rotting in their water source. Cultivators, children, elders all smiling and giggling as they were the happiest they’d ever been.

At least Shen Yuan hadn’t had to go through what Wife #307’s brother experienced. That poor guy… the details weren’t something Shen Yuan wanted to revisit, airplane when he actually didnt waste his talents and wrote porn was capable of making something that shivers his spine.

Or worse, it could just be his own mind turning against him again.

He feels his stomach starts to twist. He rubbed at his eyes, blinking hard, hit his ears repeatedly, but the screams didn’t stop. The people below didn’t vanish.

They looked real.

As much as he want to believe it, that those were real people screaming and not just another cruel trick of the Abyss, he knew better that he could never be too careful.

His hand pulls out a talisman, Nothing lethal—just a light burst charm, thats meant to blind or distract a beast long enough for him to escape. It was basically a like a flash bomb and with a flick of his wrist, he tossed it down toward the scrambling figures below,

And then fwoosh a sphere of blinding white light exploded across the dark expanse.

Shen Yuan shields his eyes from the flash and squints between his fingers, heart beating faster, waiting to see if they would dissolve into nothing or a beast thrashing around in the agony of blindness.

Sure enough, the hulking shape in below is a large poisonous ox-bear thrashing around.

But the figures below didn’t vanish. They stumbled instead, tripping over each other because of the sudden bright light that appeared.

“What was that?!” one voice cried.

“Are you okay?!” another shouted, panicked.

“I can’t see!”

Shen Yuan froze, stunned.

“This was your doing, wasn’t it, demons?!” someone snarled.

“Our doing?! None of us can generate light- this was definitely your trick!!” another shot back, voice filled with anger.

A third, breathless and furious, spat, “For people who call themselves "righteous" or "virtuous" cultivators, you sure act like Heaven-Defying Vermin”

Shen Yuan blinked, still flying in the sky above them. “…Holy shit,” he whispered. “They’re actually real.”

...

Wait...

he blinded some of them... and made the beast angry... oh fuck

With that shen yuan immediately dash towards the beast as it was about to charge at the group.

It was their fault we had ended up here. Their cruelty. Their inability to think before acting, fucking idiots. They're the reason why we're now stuck here!

They are cultivators of Huan Hua Palace: the wealthiest, most prestigious sect of all (definitely even more than cqm). The sect whose resources and contributions built every Immortal Alliance Conference. But here they are, stranded in the Endless Abyss for gods know how many days. Weeks, maybe. Trapped with the very demons they were meant to exterminate. 

We’d been sent out on what should have been a simple assignment. A village asked for aid as strange attacks, livestock vanishing, villagers going missing keep happening.

The “culprits” revealed themselves soon enough: demons. They’d hidden in the village for weeks, and had taken an old grandmother hostage. It should have been an easy assignment and a good opportunity for the younger and inexperienced shidis and shimeis to experience why we are called righteous cultivators.

With a few others from different sects joined in and they chased after these demons when all of a sudden the ground started to crack and all of them fell to the endless abyss, with this new situation they had reluctantly decided to stick with each other until they find a way to get out even though both sides wants to kill the other they proven themselves to be useful for their own survival.

And now, the ox-bear.

A towering brute of matted fur and muscle, its roar splitting stone. Poison ran in its veins, but its meat—cooked properly—was said to be a delicacy. And some of the young cultivators, foolish and starving thought themsleves that they are strong and brave enough to harvest it.

They were not.

And they all ran instead.

The beast chased the group, with its fury tearing through everything in its path. They are almost out of talismans and they were helpful to the situation, and all were too tired to fight as they had not slept or took a break in days; who could, when the Abyss allowed no rest?

The end was coming. They all felt it.

And then—

A sharp crack split the air. A flash of blinding white swallowed their vision.

The beast shrieked, and stumbling. Some of the group too were blinded. 

“What was that?!”

"Are you ok?!"

“Who—who used a talisman?!”

“Not me, i ran out yesterday!”

“Don’t lie—you think we’re blind and stupid?”

"I CAN'T SEE!"

"FUCK IT HURTS"

One of the demons, turned to the oldest Huan Hua cultivator snarling. “This was your plan, wasn't it?! Blind us and leave us as bait for the ox-boar?!”

“Excuse me?!” the cultivator snapped offended.

“This was your doing, wasn’t it, demons?!” another cultivator accused, spitting the word like poison.

Another demon barked a bitter laugh. “Our doing?! None of us can generate light—this was definitely your trick!”

“Ha!” another demon added, voice sharp with mockery. “For people who call themselves "righteous" or "virtuous", you sure act like Heaven-Defying Vermin.”

“Shut your mouth, demon!” the youngest spat, clutching at his watering eyes.

“Why don’t you make me, little lamb?” the demon sneered back.

Tempers flared, fear twisting into rage. Voices rose, overlapping:

“You think you can pin this on us?!”

“Everyone knows you demons thrive in chaos—you’re the only ones who’d benefit from this!”

“atleast were not a bunch of wuss, you righteous hypocrites nearly pissed yourselves at the first roar!”

“Say that again, filth—”

“Shut up! All of you!” barked the eldest Huan Hua cultivator, voice cutting through the clamor. His hands were shaking, but his glare is pinned on both sides. “We don’t have time for this!”

Because the ox-bear was recovering.

The towering beast’s shrieks had deepened into a rumbling fury, claws marking the stone. Blinded or not, it had locked onto the group’s panic, its massive body swinging toward them with murderous intentions.

And then-

A white blur suddenly came from above, landing on the ox-bear with such force the ground split. Dust and ash filled the air covering the field in a suffocating haze, they couldnt see anything that much but they can hear:

The beast’s enraged roars and a new voice cursing loudly as they head the ground breaking and suddenly they hear a wet, tearing sound of flesh giving way ending with something heavy collapsing against the ground.

Their surrounding starts to clear and the ox-bear’s hulking form came into view, collapsed in the ground. Its body was riddled with deep stab wounds, blood flowing out from every gash. It's throat had been torn wide open, and its glassy eyes bulged wide stuck in a expression of shock and next to the fallen beast stood a figure covered in white. A wide conical hat cast their face into shadow, with a thick scarf concealed the lower half entirely, so they couldnt see it facial features. It's robes, trimmed with fur and stitched with unique patterns but it is all covered in blood, ash, and gore.

They held a dagger dripping with fresh blood with its other hand flexed idly, claw covered blood with bits of torn flesh and fur.

But that seized everyone’s breath, was the wings.

They stretched from the figure’s back its not feathered like a bird’s, nor leathery like a bat’s. Instead, they were like blades carved from crystal. There seems to be no qi or demonic energy seeped from them. Nothing. 

The silence grew heavier. Every breath, every shift of weight, seemed too loud in their presence. No one dared to speak. None of them knew if this creature was friend or foe. All they knew was that it had chosen, for now, not to kill them.

Then the figure’s head tilted slightly. Its fingers twitched against the hilt of the bloodied dagger, fidgeting as though unsure what to do with its hands. It shifted around, glanced at the ground, then back at them again.

And finally its voice broke the silence, "umm... hi?"

Chapter Text

RUN.

DON’T STOP.

KEEP RUNNING.

The words looped in his head, as he forced himself to run desperately for his life with a broken ankle.

When Binghe was thrown into the Abyss, He’d been a terrified, furious child who hated what the world took from him and was in a realm where death is everywhere.

And now Shen Yuan understood.

Because now he was here.

Completely alone and with creatures that wanted him dead.

The System was silent.

Of course it was. This was a quest that he had accepted for a couple of points.

'You accepted it', a cruel little voice in his head whispered. 'This is all on you.'

Shen Yuan hid behind a large rock, pressing himself flat against the cold stone. He clamped a hand over his mouth to muffle his breathing, he can feel his heart pounding on his chest and tears falling down on his face.

Please. Please don’t-

Suddenly dust and debris had filled the air as claws tore straight through his hiding place flunging away and slamming hard against the cavern wall and felt his ribs break. He screamed in pain as something warm trickled down his side and his vision starts to blur.

MOVE. MOVE MOVE MOVE-

He staggered to get upright and ran- well limping as fast as he could as the thing roared behind him getting closer as he could feel it's hot breathe behind his back.

He then heard something snapped and felt like something was lifted up but he continued to run but he stop and looked back.

The creature had become tangled in something growing from the cavern walls that were thick, fibrous vines studded with thorns, tightening with every thrash. The more it struggled, the deeper they cut.

It wasn’t dead.

Not yet.

Shen Yuan stared.

His hands were shaking so badly he could barely think. His vision tunneled. His ears rang.

If it gets free, you die.

He looked down.

A long rock lay near his foot.

His body moved before his mind caught up.

He lifted the rock.

Brought it down.

The creature screamed.

Again.

Again.

Again.

He didn’t remember how many times he struck it. He didn’t remember the sound changing—from rage to pain to something wet and wrong. He didn’t remember stopping.

Only that suddenly there was silence.

Shen Yuan stood there, chest heaving, arms numb, he felt dirty. The thing beneath him didn’t move.

He couldnt breathe as the air felt suffocating and he feels his stomach twisting making him dropped the rock and stumbled back, staring at his hands as his vision began to tunneled.

They were shaking covered in red.

He collapsed down to his knees and retched, bile burning his throat as his body the adrenaline fades away now filling his body with fear and horror.

The Abyss loomed around him, vast and indifferent.

And Shen Yuan curled in on himself, covered in his own disgusting vomit and blood from the creature, as the silence and guilt of killing a life swallowed him whole.

“Umm… hi…?”

The words felt absurd in his mouth.

No one answered.

For one long, suffocating moment, the only sound was the blood dripping down on the floor.

Then Shen Yuan carefully stepped off the ox-bear’s corpse making every single one of them drew their weapons.

Shen Yuan blinked. "Me no harm" he said as he raises his hands up and drops his weapon.

"What is that thing?" One of the cultivator said and how he said thing kinda hurt shen yuan a bit.

A cultivator looking to be the oldest out of the group looks at the demons who are just as confused as them. "Why are you looking at us? We dont know what that thing is" a demon said.

"Isn't it a demon?"

"We don’t even know what that thing is,” another demon finished, voice low and wary.

Weapons stayed up ready to attack.

No one dared to move.

Shen Yuan stood there with his hands lifted, fingers slightly trembling. “…Me no harm,” he repeated, quieter this time.

“Stop talking like that,” one of the cultivators snapped. “What even are you?”

“what a strange voice it has" one whisper to another unsettled.

That comment made Shen Yuan froze and His throat tightened. “…my voice…?” he mumbled and hears how strange his voice is, how he sounded like a robot.

He hadn’t noticed-

No—he had, but he hadn’t processed it. Not until now. Not until it was said at him like it was something ugly.

“…I…” His hands lowered slightly, fingers curling in on themselves. “I don’t—”

“I don’t know.”

Silence.

“I don’t know what I am.” He felt his chest tightened as tears run down his cheeks and blurred his vision and his entire body began to shake. “I don’t know,” he repeated, softer, smaller, like if he said it enough times it might start to mean something else.

The youngest disciple’s grip on his sword loosened and took a step forward towards the person that was crying. “…He’s-”

“Stay back,” his shixiong hissed immediately, dragging him back. “Don’t be stupid. You think that’s real? We’re in the Abyss that thing is probably trying to trick us.” as he whisper at him.

"Yeah its obviously a demon and all demons do is cause trouble and deceive-"

“You think only demons can deceive? Your kind lies as well, your no better than us.” a demon barked.

“At least we don’t eat people alive,” a cultivator shot back.

“Oh?” the demon sneered. “Should I list the number of villages that were butchered because someone suspected demonic blood?”

“That’s slander!”

“That’s history.”

“Enough!” the eldest cultivator snapped, though his voice wavered.

The tension snapped back into place sharp, suffocating, ready to tear open again at the slightest push with Shen Yuan stood in the middle of it.

“…please,” he said.

The word came out fractured, barely holding together.

He swallowed hard, forcing the next words out despite the way his voice broke around them. “Don’t… leave me.”

That got their attention.

“I-” He sucked in a shaky breath. “I won’t hurt you. I helped! I can be useful! I-I-I..!” his wings shifted slightly behind him, beautiful and were fluttering as if he terrifying and his gaze flickered between them looking desperate now. "I-I dont want to be alone...!”

They hesitated, they've might have only been in the abyss for maybe just a few weeks and heard horrifying stories about this place and never heard of the creature right infront of them that moved unnaturally fast, easily tearing an ox-bear, and neither sensing any qi or demonic qi around it and yet it is pitifully begging to not be left alone.

A cultivator frowned. “It could turn on us at any moment.”

“yeah? So could you,” the demon shot back flatly.

“That’s different-”

“It’s not!”

The argument sparked again, shouting many offesnive words at each other while the youngest disciple looked between them, then at Shen Yuan as he stood there still shaking, covered in blood that wasn’t all his own, eyes looking so scared and lost... like him. “… he saved us,” he said as he grabs the eldest of his martial brothers sleeves looking at him.

The eldest cultivator exhaled slowly, gaze hard as he studied Shen Yuan from head to toe. “…Fine,” he said at last. “But just like with them" glaring at the demons who glares right back at him "we keep our distance,” he added sharply. “And the moment it does anything suspicious-”

“We kill it,” one of the demons finished without hesitation.

Shen Yuan flinched.

But he nodded quickly.

“Understood,” he said, Relief hit him so suddenly his knees nearly gave out. He knew they’ll give him the cold shoulder and are afraid of him. But he wasnt alone any more.

That was enough.