AJ

Luo Binghe has gotten tired of the countless betrayals within his palace and decides to take more extreme measures. All of his wives, his advisors, and his servants have already consumed his blood, so all it takes is giving the parasites one little instruction:

“Punish those who have any thought of betraying me, reward all who act loyal, and kill those who commit treason.”

Shen Yuan is the last life of Shen Jiu. Their soul is the same, though it’s fragmented. Shen Yuan dies cursing PIDW in one life and is born in the next with no memories. Blank slate. He becomes Shen Jiu. Then the Qi Deviation happens, the memories of Shen Jiu disappear and the ones from Shen Yuan’s past life take place. This is why Shen Qingqiu doesn’t appear as possessed when checked by the other peak lords. It’s the same soul.

Svsss happens same as usual, until one day post cannon Shen Jiu just snaps back into place. Whether they become a blended person, it’s one with the memories of the other, Shen Yuan continues to pilot the body and whatever but Shen Jiu’s commentating from the back seat.

In this world the mushrooms don’t exist, but Airplane has another solution, and it’s eyes another thrown away plot point.

It was originally supposed to be used to make all of Luo Binghe’s human, non cultivator wives into immortals. It was scrapped since that also meant threats from outside the harem were less dramatic.

It’s a type of rock sugar that, when fully dissolved into liqueur makes a cultivation boosting elixir. It takes an excessively long time to fully dissolve, but a drop mixed into tea is intense enough to give someone with no cultivation base their own golden core, and a teaspoon is enough to bring anyone to the brink of Ascencion.

Bingqiu that, after a couple thousand years of marital bliss finally decide it’s time to rest eternally together.

They die in each other’s arms, then Shen Yuan gets an alert from the system (which has been quiet for millennia now) that he’s been assigned a new mission.

Shen Yuan has been given the opportunity (chore) of reliving his whole life in the modern era as Shen Yuan to “see how things will change.” He’s even given the reward of keeping the ability to use Qi, even though he’ll have to cultivate a golden core on his own.

Shen Yuan thinks: whatever, it’s only a couple hundred years or so, not insubstantial but only a drop in the bucket compared to how long he’s lived.

He grows to be a child prodigy in multiple different studies and arts, but decides the spotlight is annoying and so becomes a professor at an arts university.

nah that doesn’t feel correct

He’s a Weaponize White-lotus Warlord

Mm

Von Willebrands being a genetic disorder that fucks with how blood clots, making it so small cuts can bleed for hours and bruises form really really easily, which matches up with Jing Wang bruising after Piao Xue.

Probably type 1 or type 2, since idk if he would’ve survived type 3 back then. I’d say type 2, so maybe in that case the fish babies couldn’t inherit it? And maybe it could be resolved for Jing Wang with the vacation they take near the end?

Soulmate pairs in PIDW each have a semi-unique way to symbolize that connection:

Red strings of fate. Words/names/marks on the body. Feeling each others pain. Only seeing color when making eye contact. One eye changing color with first eye contact. Having a mental link. Sharing scars. Sharing dreams. Sparking on first physical contact. A/B/O pheromone stuff. Etc etc.

In PIDW, Luo Binghe is each of his wives soulmate. Each and every one of them. It’s not totally clear whether that’s just fate or some reality bending protagonist/heavenly demon power he holds. He marries each beauty who claims to be his soulmate, since rejection by a soulmate means falling into soul-sickness (an ailment where one’s soul latches onto its mate, slowly plunging a person into a deep depression until all that’s left is a living, soul-less husk. It’s cured, as one might expect, from papapa with one’s soulmate… or a heavenly demon)

Second Ranked Pokémon Gym Leader Shen Qingqiu who abuses one of his monsters, BingBing. BingBing is unable to gain any exp as he’s always sent to fight against Pokémon which are way higher level than him, and thus he always faints before the battle is over. He stays at his base level and is often times used as a shield for Shen Qingqiu’s favorite Pokémon.

The only reason Shen Qingqiu hasn’t released BingBing yet is because one of his favored Pokémon, YingYing, fights so much better with him on the team.

When a tournament is overrun by feral Pokémon, BingBing is forced to fight an ice type Pokémon and is somehow forced into a rapid evolution. This has the effect of revealing BingBing as a Heavenly Demon type. In response, Shen Qingqiu knocks his Pokémon into the abyss so he can use his pokeball for something else.

BingBing doesn’t get eaten by the Abyss, however, instead gaining levels never before seen, evolving into a legendary beast without compare. In the process he becomes feral, gaining a bloodlust for humans and a desire to kill them all.

BingBing discovers Xin-Mo, a Pokeball that acts as a portal through space and uses it to leave the Abyss. He makes his way through the overworld, dead set on seducing lovely Pokémon and killing their humans. He won’t stop until all the humans are dead, and his first target is Shen Qingqiu.

But that’s not really how the story plays out, is it?

Because when Shen Yuan dies and wakes up as Shen Qingqiu, the scum villain of his “least favorite” Pokémon game, he knows he can’t be cruel to his loyal little BingBing.

BingBing is such a determined little bun, never giving up despite all the odds stacked against him. With just a hit of kindness from his human he’s toughing out fights he really shouldn’t just so he doesn’t make his Shizun sad.

But Shen Yuan’s system insists BingBing must go into the abyss, and so he does.

And Shen Yuan keeps the empty pokeball in his team, unable to fill it or the slot ever again.

Maybe they were cultivators.

Or scholars.

Or merchants.

Etc etc.

BUT, if they’re well off, there’s a better chance that one or both are still alive at the beginning of PIDW.

And in PIDW Luo Binghe would’ve never met them because they ascended, died to PIDWs monsters/poisons or died/went into hiding because of Luo Binghe targeted cultivators/rebels.

Emperor Tianlang with a harem and everything, who is taken with Su Xiyan to the jealously of the other concubines. His Empress (whom he cannot remove due to political implications) is especially determined to maintain her power, and poisons all the other concubines to ensure no viable heirs ever survive or are born.

Su Xiyan falls pregnant, and for fear of her child being slaughtered, convinces her washerwoman to help her hide the child. She arranges for the washerwoman to catch Tianlang-Jun’s fleeting attention. Then, when the maid is promoted to a concubine, she pleads with her Emperor to send the maid to the Cold Palace. He concedes.

She guards herself carefully from the Empress and her machinations, carrying her pregnancy to term. But when she gives birth, she replaces her baby with a stillborn and has her trusted Eunuch whisk the child away to the washerwoman in the cold palace, where he can hopefully grow old and strong enough to survive the palace when he’s revealed to his father.

The washerwoman is isolated from the rest of the palace, guarded by two trusted Eunuch’s who bring her food and water twice a day.

Shen Yuan dies, and transmigrates into some low level monster, plant, or inanimate object. His System helps him like any standard Leveling System, showing his skills, stats, health and granting him points to improve them.

It’s tedious and painful work for sure, but he’s thrilled. He’s read so many different versions of this, and is certain that he’s the main character of some new, exciting fantasy world.

He levels up enough to gain a human form, and finally leaves his cave/dungeon.

Then he realizes he’s in PIDW.

+ Extra points if he’s some rare, precious material Luo Bingge needs to find for one of his wives.

++ Extra points if this rare, precious material must be harvested in a way that will permanently hurt or kill Shen Yuan, making Shen Yuan flee in fright. Plus it provides extra conflict for Luo Bingge as he falls for Shen Yuan.