listen to me ramble about the sewer rats au boy
in this au, Yi was part of an underground organised crime syndicate named the Tiandao gang who typically does drug related operations. New Kunlun is much more closer to a big cityscape than the island-spaceship thing you see in-game. think of the empyrean living district but it's the entire island
our guy Yi got thrown out of the gang after trying to stop eigong from developing and pushing a new substance. it's like the mutant strain, but made into illicit drugs in which consuming it makes you zooted out of your mind but ends up with irreversible bodily effects. yet to name this scary drug
yi and heng are still very much alive at the same time, but heng stayed back in the village in the xia kingdom sending Yi messages. but she just gets left on read
the sols swap to become captains with their titles, like Kuafu being the Craftsman or Jiequan being the Warrior. each captain is slain one by one by yi in an attempt to weaken and subsequently dismantle the gang from ruling the city with an iron grip
and yi became a private detective to use as a guise and funding source for his personal mission to track down the captain's and kill them. except kuafu. kuafu quits and joins yi as a sidekick
he also ditches the medicinal herbs for. straight up tobacco. his voice is extremely rough
