Shen Qingqiu and the System are like a child and their helicopter parent.
While it doesn't shy away from several heavy themes, the meta humor and the protagonist's reactions to the unfolding plot is two of the many reasons that this novel is Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's most light-hearted work.
All spoilers are unmarked.
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General
- Shen Qingqiu's inner monologue is always good for a laugh. In many scenes he acts calm while silently cursing up a storm, to hilarious effect. Also his constant Snark-to-Snark Combat with the System when it calls him out for being OOC and to stick to the plot while he curses at it.
- Shen Qingqiu believes he did a near impeccable job impersonating the original Shen Qingqiu, but everyone immediately knows something is off with him. However, due to him acting kinder than the man before him did, it leads everyone to not bother trying to change him back.
- Shen Qingqiu states multiple times in his internal monologue that having read a stallion novel proves he is completely straight, but he read the novel for the plot, not the porn."That's right, Shen Qingqiu still considered himself to be straight! To read a stallion novel like Proud Immortal Demon Way was the very proof of his sexuality!"
- Luo Binghe interprets every other thing Shen Qingqiu does as something heroic or romantic can cause a few chuckles, since the readers know he's being nice to Luo Binghe so he doesn't suffer his original counterparts fate.
Main Story
Pre-Time Skip
- In the donghua, as Shen Yuan rapidly retells the story of 'Proud Immortal Demon Way', the comments he makes on the story being cliche are absolutely hilarious:
- He bemoans that we yet again have an orphaned protagonist who ends up even losing his adoptive mother fairly soon.
- He likens Shen Qingqiu pushing Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss as giving the boy a scholarship.
- Shen Yuan dying from food poisoning? Already pretty funny. But in the donghua, he chokes on a bun while he has an online argument with Airplane and some of his fans.
- Shen Qingqiu calls Yue Qingquan a quest giving NPC.
- Shen Qingqiu sees Luo Binghe for the first time and the donghua shows him being blinded by his title which is literally glowing.
- As he tries to be more kind to Binghe Shen Qingqiu offers him medicine for his bruises, which the System admonishes him for. In a panic, he then quickly drinks the entire container, only to read the characters on the front to see it was for external use only.
- Shen Qingqiu protecting Luo Binghe from Ming Fan causing a violation and the System deducting 15 points from him. Then he has to do it again, leading the System to deduct 60 points, leaving him with only 25 points remaining. He calls out the callousness of the System and argues over this decision.
- Shen Qingqiu wondering why he was so kind to Luo Binghe and then finds his jade pendant, which the System rewards him with 150B points.Shen Qingqiu: All hail the kind person!
- The donghua has to censor Harry Potter when Shen Qingqiu jokingly asks the System if it worked on the game with that name.
- After finally giving Luo Binghe some medicine while staying in character, Shen Qingqiu can't help but smile at his disciple. The System deducts 15 points from him because of that. This was after he managed to successfully argue against the System docking points off for allowing Luo Binghe to ride in his carriage.
- Shen Qingqiu doing a Spit Take when the lord and his concubine start displaying some PDA.
- In order to calm down the lord who called them to investigate the murders, Shen Qingqiu has Ming Fan take care of it. Afterwards he sighs that he shouldn't have let Ming Fan handle it.
- Shen Qingqiu chooses Easy Mode, making the villain characters noticeably drop in IQ level. He bemoans momentarily as they do their monologuing as villains do.
- After getting knocked out, Shen Qingqiu wakes up to realize he's the only one left in his inner robes with it slipping enough that his left shoulder is exposed. He calls out Luo Binghe in his mind for staring.
- Shen Qingqiu's choice of last words to the Skinner demon?Shen Qingqiu: How's the taste of sleeping with an old man in his sixties?
- How does Shen Qingqiu use Luo Binghe's Plot Armor against the Skinner Demon? Convince her that she should attack Luo Binghe instead since his spiritual powers were much greater than his. When she attempts to kill the boy the Systen kicks in, causing a sudden strike of lightning to hit the temple and conveniently knock down a pillar above the demon, collapsing it on top of her.
- Shen Qingqiu finds a seemingly empty cave for him to meditate in, only to be interrupted by a loud banging sound. He tries to ignore it but after the second time he angrily gets up to investigate.
- Shen Qingqiu gets friendly with Liu Qingge and asking him if he was touched by his kindness. Liu Qingge coughs up blood in response.
- Also, Shen Qingqiu was pictured the War God as quite the intimidating warrior and is stunned to find a man able to pass as the World's Most Beautiful Woman. In the donghua, his commenting out loud on Liu Qingge being so pretty leads the guy to freak a bit.
- After his long meditation in the donghua, Shen Qingqiu leaves the cave and notes that if this were in a show, those years he spent meditating would only last ten seconds of screen time. In the novel itself, he lampshades this moment by saying his months of meditation would be condensed down into a chapter.
- Shen Qingqiu fanboys when Sha Hualing appears. However, he soon starts to get slightly annoyed with her because she was too much like the original canon.
- Once Liu Mingyan enters the scene, Shen Qingqiu goes on about how every man had the dream of being sandwhiched between two contrasting women like Liu Mingyan and Sha Hualing."Having thought to here, Shen Qingqiu cried some bitter tears for himself and couldn't help but look towards Luo Binghe again.
- As he beats one of Sha Hualing's best soldier, Shen Qingqiu pompously thinks he could easily beat the rest of her men no problem. Then the System reminds him that if Luo Binghe wouldn't participate in the other two battles, Shen Qingqiu's account would be immediately terminated. Shen Qingqiu's face when he hears this looks absolutely offended.
- As Liu Mingyan offers to fight Sha Hualing in the next round, everyone immediately gets distracted by her presence. Even Sha Hualing's own men are enraptured until she tells them off.
- Liu Mingyan and Sha Hualing square off, ending with the two just dancing around each other. Ming Fan claims they were actually sizing each other up, but the donghua makes that hard to believe.
- Despite Shen Qingqiu's excitement of seeing two of Luo Binghe's most popular harem girls square off, he looks away for a moment and finds out the fight was already over when he looks back.
- Shen Qingqiu unconsciously pushes Luo Binghe out of the way so he gets hit with the No Cure poisoned spikes. His reaction? A Cluster F-Bomb where he wonders why he protected Luo Binghe when the kid clearly is safe from any real harm coming upon him.
- Everyone wonders how they cure Without a Cure and Shen Qingqiu is internally freaking out."Even if he knew that he only needed to pa pa pa with the protagonist to cure the poison, could he? Could he? Hahahaha..."
- Pulled into Luo Binghe's dreamscape, Shen Qingqiu starts sucking up to the System asking if there was a bug because he clearly wasn't supposed to be here.Shen Qingqiu: Great one, darling, great god! Are you sure there isn't a Bug? [...] How come I'm given this role?! What about the good emotions and spiritual communication leading to acceptance into the harem scene?
- As they head to the Immortal Alliance Conference, Shen Qingqiu sits with Qi Qingqi who is less than thrilled. She notes that Shen Qingqiu is rather spoiled and asks if he also gets snacks as well. He thanks her for the reminder as he knocks on the carriage window and Luo Binghe immediately appears to give his shizun some snacks he prepared beforehand. Qi Qingqi practically rolls her eyes.
- Shen Qingqiu notices Liu Mingyan is nearby and eagerly looks out the cart, hoping this would trigger a scene between Luo Binghe and Liu Mingyan. This instead causes Luo Binghe to get jealous as he then moves Liu Mingyan's horse ahead so it's out of his shizun's line of sight, all while wondering how much more beautiful Liu Mingyan could be if her face is covered. In the donghua, he has her to look at the mountains and asks if she thought they were beautiful. When she says they are, Luo Binghe then turns around and tells her to enjoy them by herself.
- Mobei-Jun basically calling Shen Qingqiu weak as he tosses him aside and Shen Qingqiu thinks that if this were the original goods, he would have coughed up blood and cursed a storm at the insult.
- After a week, Shen Qingqiu finally receives his points for pushing Luo Binghe into the Abyss... before the System retroactively reduces all of those points to zero because the protagonist wasn't around to power the System and because the "heartbreak value" was too high it had to reset Shen Qingqiu's points. To say Shen Qingqiu was livid at this would be an understatement.
- How did Shen Qingqiu find out Shang Qinghua's true identity? The other had yelled out "Fuck!" when Mobei Jun appeared. In English.
- Shen Qingqiu finding out Shang Qinghua is Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky. It takes every fiber of his being not to outright strangle the man once they are able to get some time to speak to one another, but Shang Qinghua is just happy to have met a fan of his work.
- As they enter the cave, Shang Qinghua does the most useful thing as he basically flattens himself on the ground below. Gongyi Xiao has to politely apologize as he jumps over him.
- Shen Qingqiu trying to come up with a disguise, so he slaps on some makeup and a beard and calls it a day.
- How does Shen Qingqiu try to help his Cang Qiong disciples without giving it away that he's alive? Grab a nearby cat, throw it inside and chase it around pretending it's his pet. He then maneuvers Ning Yingying so she ends up slapping the Palace Mistress twice across the face.
Post-Time Skip
- How does Shen Qingqiu rise from the grave? After five years because Shang Qinghua's fertilizer messed with the growth of the plant. Shen Qingqiu obviously doesn't miss a beat as he curses Airplane the moment he realizes he can't move just yet.
- Shen Qingqiu tries to use his old internet alias as his new name. This just leads to everyone being confused at how to pronounce cucumber.
- At the bar he hears the people inside start to gossip about his relationship to Luo Binghe, with the speaker claiming that Luo Binghe had tried to force himself onto his teacher when he was younger so Shen Qingqiu pushed him away to save face. Now Luo Binghe watches over Shen Qingqiu's corpse out of not only loyalty but due to his unrequited love. Everyone's reactions vary from Liu Mingyan's thoughtful murmuring, Yang Yixuan's confusion and Shen Qingqiu wishing to bury himself back into the ground.
- After Zhuzhi-Lang "helps" Shen Qingqiu, he tells the other he will give him anything and Shen Qingqiu demands they go to a brothel. Zhuzhi-Lang pauses for a moment before grinning at the request. Then later after using wine to intoxicate Zhuzhi-Lang so he reverts to his original form, Shen Qingqiu uses him as a form of transportation to the other's discomfort as he whacks him with his fan to change directions.
- Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe fight once more, but this time Shen Qingqiu grabs his corpse and tosses it over to a confused Liu Qingge.
- Shen Qingqiu walking into one of Luo Binghe's dreams and slowly begins to realize that Luo Binghe's feelings towards him may not be hatred as the other attempts to kiss him in his dream.
- Of course Shen Qingqiu's disguise is just him slapping on some hair, calling it a beard and moving on with his day.
- As Shen Qingqiu returns to Cang Qiong Peak undercover, he sees an argument breaking out amongst everyone, especially the other peak lords when they realized Shang Qinghua was a traitor. He tries to hide behind Mobei-Jun who keeps shoving him into harms way. Qi Qingqi gets so pissed she starts chasing Shang Qinghua with her sword. Shen Qingqiu is having a blast watching the entire scene unfold.Shen Qingqiu: Cut him, cut him, cut him... f*ck, just off by a bit! Qi Qingqi, cut off his [BEEP]! Use effort!
- Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu meet again with Shen Qingqiu yelling at Shang Qinghua at how he sold him out to Luo Binghe. He then rants about how he doesn't want to spread his legs for Luo Binghe exclaiming about his disciple's "improtant bits" and Shang Qinghua brushes it off as a good part of him.
- Just as Shang Qinghua was about to reveal some information on Tianlang-Jun, a servant outside alerts Shen Qingqiu that Luo Binghe is arriving. Shang Qinghua quickly makes for the window while Shen Qingqiu curses the timing and tries to get Shang Qinghua to at least spit out the vital information he'd need.
- Shen Qingqiu tries to hide from the blind monsters in the Mausoleum, and attempts to hide in a coffin he finds. He politely asks if he could use it out of respect, but didn't expect someone inside to answer back. He immediately forgoes that coffin and tries to continue running.
- Tianlang-Jun's appearance, he cheerfully asks Shen Qingqiu to help him out of his coffin and when his arm falls off, he just politely asks if he could give it back to him. Shen Qingqiu watches in equal horror and fascination as Tianlang-Jun simply reattach his missing limb.
- The infamous ballad "Resentment of Chunshan", which claims Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu are in a relationship long before they actually start one. Popular enough to be sung in both the human and demon realms. Even Tianlang-Jun knows about it, and asks Shen Qingqiu if it's true. Heck just finding out that the most powerful demon lord and the protagonists' father in the story is a Yaoi Fanboy leads to plenty more hilarious moments later on with Tianlang-Jun.
- The scene of Shen Qingqiu having to hide in a coffin with Luo Binghe. He believes they're safe since the corpses are attracted to light, only to realize that Luo Binghe's forehead mark is glowing so he has to cover it up with his lips. Then when the corpses start feeling inside the coffin Shen Qingqiu starts getting into more compromised positions to make sure they don't get found out. All while internally screaming at how much he hates this entire situation. Then the icing on the cake — he feels something hard pressing against his leg and thinks it's Xin Mo, so he tries to push it away. After getting a notification from the System congratulating him on achieving an award on physical touch, Shen Qingqiu suddenly realizes he's not touching a sword.
- As Meng Mo appears to Shen Qingqiu in a dream but tells him he can't do anything to help, Shen Qingqiu decides to ignore him, roll over and go back to sleep. Meng Mo gets offended at this behavior and starts going off on how Luo Binghe always puts a front on in front of Shen Qingqiu while crying about it when he's not around. The way Meng Mo sounds just says how much pining and tears he had to suffer through on Luo Binghe's end.Meng Mo: He stubbornly continues to put on an act in front of you too, pretending not to feel anything! If it were up to me, he should either just kill you or do you. Putting up such a fuss, wavering in between- it really makes someone mad when they see it!!
- Chapter 64: Luo Binghe finds Shen Qingqiu , just before Zhuzhi-Lang arrives to treat him. Shen Qingqiu hides him under the bed covers and tries to stop Zhuzhi-Lang learning he's there. His efforts are foiled when Luo Binghe keeps pushing the covers away. Even so, Zhuzhi-Lang doesn't notice anything... until Luo Binghe stands up while Shen Qingqiu is on the bed. There's also the fact that Zhuzhi-Lang asks if he can come in, but then thinks Shen Qingqiu's asleep... so he still tells him he's coming inside.
- Then Tianlang-Jun walks in to Shen Qingqiu wrestling Zhuzhi-Lang underneath him while Luo Binghe is back underneath the sheets and secretly choking Zhuzhi-Lang. Tianglang-Jun actually has to pause for a moment to take the scene in. Then he grabs a chair and sits down as if he wants to spectate.
- After he leaves due to an emergency, Shen Qingqiu apologizes to Zhuzhi-Lang, but he says he understands.Zhuzhi-Lang: In order for Master Shen to lessen the pain of lovesickness, you two had to meet secretly in the middle of the night. Even though it would inevitably tarnish your reputation, it is still excusable.
Shen Qingqiu: ... - To cap off the hilarity of this entire scene, when Tianlang-Jun notices Luo Binghe is beside Shen Qingqiu, and then remembers where he and Zhuzhi-Lang were before, he starts to think all of them had a three-some.
Extras
Face-Off
- Bingge being confused at how the women in his original harem were treating him differently. From finding out Ning Yingying prefers it when he refers to her respectfully as "Ning-Shijie" and not "Yingying", to discovering Liu Mingyan's fanfiction of him and Shen Qingqiu. What makes it more hilarious is how this prompts him to make a move on Shen Qingqiu.
- It's implied that Bingge used his heavenly demon blood on Shen Qingqiu, by holding his private part hostage.
- As Shen Qingqiu defends his husband, he also brings up how awful Binghe is in bed. With the latter being less than pleased at hearing his husband not not liking his technique in front of his other self who is more experienced.
Return to Childhood
- After Shen Qingqiu brings a de-aged Luo Binghe back to Qing Jing Peak, all the other cultivators gather around him and wonder who the child he's carrying is. Liu Qingge makes the most bizarre assumption: that the child is Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe's son. Cue a hard kick from Shen Qingqiu (whether it's in the literal or metaphorical sense is anyone's guess), since Shen Qingqiu lampshades that in spite of the many ridiculous plot elements that Shang Qinghua wrote for Proud Immortal Demon Way, he never went as far to include male pregnancy in the story.
- Luo Binghe trying, and failing, to make a move on Shen Qingqiu due to being stuck in the body of a child. In the second attempt, Shen Qingqiu calls him "baobei" in an attempt to both tease and soothe him. In response, Luo Binghe screams in frustration.
Airplane Extras
- Shang Qinghua's death? After he dropped his cup of noodles onto his computer and in a panic tried to plug it in and out to hopefully save his files. You can guess what happens next. Makes it more hilarious as the two transmigrators of the story died by food in some way.
- To save their own skins, Shang Qinghua's shixiongs push him in front of Mobei-Jun to give them time to run away. Shang Qinghua then does the honorable thing and grabs Mobei-Jun's thighs, pleading and crying for mercy. Both the demon king and the disciples are left stunned.
- As he takes care of Mobei-Jun, he hogs Shang Qinghua's bed, declaring it to be his. Shang Qinghua promptly gives up at he says what's his is his king's.
- Shang Qinghua being brought to the Demon Council to help Luo Binghe figure out a strategy to win his Shizun's heart. Mobei-Jun initially raises his hand, but Luo Binghe tells him to put his hand away since his advice is bound to be terrible.
- Mobei-Jun's suggestion? Hit the person you like at least three times a day. Shang Qinghua is left oblivious to that statement.
- The reason Luo Binghe acts so pathetic and cute towards Shen Qingqiu in canon? Shang Qinghua suggested he act that way as people can't be mad at someone who acts so pitiful. Best part? It worked!!
- Then when Mobei-Jun asks Shang Qinghua if to get someone to fall in love with you, acting pathetic is the way to go. Shang Qinghua quickly and nervously confirms, still oblivious to why his king was asking him this.
- Getting fed up of Mobei-Jun's treatment and deciding he would vent all of his anger out on the demon king who is too paralyzed to move currently. Just as he raises his fist, Shang Qinghua drops it and instead pinches Mobei-Jun's cheeks instead.
- Shang Qinghua accidentally runs into Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu out on a honeymoon trip. While Shen Qingqiu tries to be accommodating and listen to Shang Qinghua's problems, Luo Binghe is clearly annoyed at having to look after their uninvited guest. He even grumpily reminds Shang Qinghua multiple times that this was supposed be his and his shizun's honeymoon trip, alone.
- As Luo Binghe serves some food, Shang Qinghua wants to ask why he wasn't be served as well, but is too scared to actually voice it in fear his protagonist would kill him. When he gingerly asks where his plate and chopsticks were, Luo Binghe gruffly answers that the only packed enough for him and his shizun. After some gentle prodding from Shen Qingqiu, he waves Shang Qinghua to the kitchen to get his own noodles to which the author happily goes after.
- Linguang-Jun chasing Shang Qinghua who pulls out a talisman and pretends it's a fire that's effective against demons. When he uses it, Linguang-Jun flinches, only to find out Shang Qinghua was bluffing. He then pursues his target with more anger than before.
