🦈🧁Merry🧁🦈

Danny, discovering that being a hero is an actual, legal profession— with benefits!: This universe is amazing! *Submits his application for the hero course*

Danny, realizing he's technically a hundred years in the future of an alternate reality and excitedly googling how far humans have traveled into space: Have we made it to Mars? Has Pluto retaken her status as a planet?

Danny, discovering that there haven't been any significant scientific breakthroughs in astronomy or the realm of space exploration in well over a hundred years: W H A T

Danny, immediately changes his application to Gen Ed: This cannot be allowed to stand.

--

The Sports Festival in this universe would be a riot.

Velinxi’s illustrations are as gorgeous as ever!

I mean, look at Tianlang-Jun’s coffin introduction. It really incapsulates his “kingly grace” that “could make said coffin look like an emperor’s throne.” That line was always one of my favorite mental images from the novel so I'm ecstatic it was illustrated.

We even get to see Airplane flying off to go save his future husband.

Other than the beautiful illustrations, volume 3 has so many great moments it's hard to pin them all down, but this is a memorable one.

I love how even after Everything that just happened, Shen Qingqiu still manages to make me laugh. Way to lighten the mood with a mouthful of blood.

This scene, as well, is another one of my favorites.

You've got to love how no one can handle Shen Qingqiu's shameless declaration to the scourge of the cultivation world—right in front of them as they're trying to have a good time!—so instead everyone just ignores the pair or starts hysterically laughing to cope while Liu Mingyan takes mental notes.

As an honorable mention, the whole scene of Shen Qingqiu beating up Airplane on page 334 and being caught by Yue Qingyuan and Master Wu Chen who, having just witnessed him attack Shang Qinghua until he was "prone like a corpse" and about to dispose of the body in a forest, only comments on Shen Qingqiu being safe and sound, is absolute gold.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it hard to believe the main story's official translation is already complete? Time really flew by.

My money was on this cover being a scene from the Holy Mausoleum—more specifically when Shen Qingqiu is protecting Luo Binghe from being skewered by the Old Palace Master and Qiu Haitang—but this is even better!

The scene at Zhao Hua Temple heavily hits on a lot of Luo Binghe’s issues and insecurities with all of those cultivators talking hatefully about their perception of his conception, how he was spurned by Su Xiyan before he was even born for being a demon, and how they regret that fetus-Luo Binghe survived being poisoned, so Shen Qingqiu taking his hand, comforting him, and then defending him from their accusations and physical attacks is such a great moment to pick as this volume’s cover. 

I also love how the cover implies that Shen Qingqiu got five hundred satisfaction points for holding Luo Binghe’s hand. (Unless those points are in reference to the five hundred Shen Qingqiu earns when he hits Luo Binghe at the Bamboo House replica?) 

The full Luo Binghe family! (Minus the washerwoman)

Luo Binghe looks so similar to Tianlang-Jun except with the nose and eyebrows of Su Xiyan. I kinda wish we got a bit more of Su Xiyan’s face so we could see more of Luo Binghe’s resemblance to her, but *crosses fingers* I hope we'll get a full sketch of her in the bonus image gallery for this volume. 

I find it really funny how Tianlang-Jun is just given the title "heavenly demon" above his name and not something like "former junshang" while Zhuzhi-Lang is given full respect and labeled as a “demon general.” Even just Tianlang-Jun’s image screams “demon emperor” (as well as “cool dad”) with his breezy grin, single eyebrow raise, open robes, and his ability to somehow appear to be literally looking down at the viewer, even from the confines of an illustration. It reminds me of Shen Qingqiu’s comment about him being able to sit inside of a coffin and make it seem as if he were sitting on the emperor’s throne.

Just like with volume 2 of MDZS, I need to give kudos to whoever at Seven Seas wrote: “To save his sect from destruction, Shen Qingqiu has at last submitted to Luo Binghe—though he wishes people would stop saying it that way! Unfortunately, they’re not wrong.” That line is golden! The people who work on SVSSS know what’s up.

Shang Qinghua was basically reincarnated so he doesn’t fall under this, and since the PIDW/ SVSSS universe runs on spaghetti code and desperate "I-have-to-write-10K-a-day-to-keep-the-lights-on-I-forgot-if-I-killed-this-side-character-or-not" logic, people are allowed to come back to life a couple times. (Ex. The Holy Mausoleum, Sun and Moon Dew Flower) 

However, there’s a limit to that and well…Shen Qingqiu has long passed it.

Instead of having hundreds of Wife Halos™ condensed into a single Danmei Love Interest Halo™, as Shang Qinghua assumes, the reason Shen Qingqiu is an unkillable cockroach is because he has died so many times by the time post-canon rolls around that the universe no longer accepts it. The instant he dies the world simply duck taps his body back together, wipes him off, and then spits his soul right back into his newly not-deceased body.  

(Think: flip clocks) Metaphorically, I imagine that the universe’s [Shen Qingqiu status: Alive] flap doesn’t flip to [deceased] anymore because Shen Qingqiu has overworked the poor gear that does it. It's now, permanently, stuck on [Alive]. And nothing can change that.

So he lives, and lives, and lives.

At first, there’s nothing strange about that. He’s immortal and surrounded by overprotective Peak Lords with a devoted demon lord husband as the cherry on top, so of course he'd live. 

All the while things slip through the cracks. Moments of concern go unquestioned and fretful instances are waved off as a mistake—a trick of the light. Instances Shen Qingqiu really shouldn't have been able to walk away from. 

Even when people have doubts, Shen Qingqiu's propensity for surviving the unsurvivable is well-established and unparalleled, so it’s easy for people to put aside their worries. After all, there’s been an explanation in the past; there’s one now. Surely.

It's not like he is dying in obvious ways either. Not even Shen Qingqiu thinks too deeply on those moments when the world seems to shift on its axis, the tiny far too familiar nudge on his soul—It's nothing, he rationalizes. Nothing at all. 

Everyone lives Happily Ever After. 

But all good things must come to an end.

And the beginning of the end the beginning of despair starts with a lucky shot.

Shen Qingqiu gets hurt.

He gets hurt in a way that can’t be ignored. Not even by himself. It’s a blatant wound gushing blood that not even an immortal with heavenly demon blood on his side could possibly survive. Luo Binghe is far away, embroiled in a different battle, but he tries to save him, oh does he try, but it’s futile.

Shen Qingqiu closes his eyes for the last time.

He then pops them right back open and is miraculously back to full health. Wound not in sight…body in tip-top shape. Perfect fighting form.

Without any pain, he sits up and stares into the wide eyes of the one that inflicted his not-so-killing blow. Shen Qingqiu calls on Xiu Ya, taking care of the man. With that out of the way he notices that not only has his health been restored but his clothes are pristine. Under him the ground is only stained by his opponent’s blood, not his, like it should have been.

Before he can begin to panic, Luo Binghe arrives. Shen Qingqiu soothes him and makes up an excuse about the heat of battle leading Luo Binghe to be mistaken about his blood sending him signals of a life-threatening wound. He’s standing right here, perfectly fine, among a battle that’s just about finished. There’s nothing to worry about. Everything’s fine.

Shen Qingqiu only wishes he could believe that.

Nothing’s fine.

And he doesn’t think it ever will be again.

Because immortality is a misnomer. But this?

Since his second death was so public, this idea would work best (AKA have maximum chaos) if people found out before Jinlan City. 

If it is before the Immortal Alliance Conference people would be really suspicious about what caused his soul to look like he died. Since it isn't far removed from SJ's time, some unsavory rumors about using forbidden techniques, demonic cultivation, deal with demons etc. are flying around. Some people bring up the recent personality change SQQ went through and connect the two. The tame rumor is that SQQ had such a devastating qi deviation that it managed to have an impact on his soul similar to as if he had died and that's what caused the personality change the sect witnessed. The not-so-tame rumor is that SQQ really did die and that someone (everyone's money is on YQY) brought him back from the dead. That's why his soul looks like he died, because he did, and the experience of being brought back to life, along with whatever uber-powerful and forbidden technique that did it, had an influence and scrambled SQQ's personality into the new and improved version. It's a mess. The rumor mill is working overtime. Nobody confronts SQQ with any of this. They just stick to observing him to see if they can prove any of their theories right.

The opposite would happen if people found out after SQQ pushes LBH into the Abyss. There wouldn't be a million ideas flying around; just one. And it is universally accepted. It is literally the only thing demons and humans alike can agree on: SQQ's heartbreak over LBH "dying" was so strong that it left an imprint on his soul. For all intents and purposes, his grief killed him, and his soul reflects it. (People comment on how in those LBH-less years SQQ looked like "he had lost his soul" so you can't tell me that Cang Qiong Mountain wouldn't take one look at SQQ's death marked soul and collectively go "sounds about right." The comments about SQQ being a grieving widow after the Conference would take on a whole new—very literal—meaning.) This brings The Resentment of Chunshan into existence even earlier! It is even better worse than in canon. SQQ loses his mind when he finds out, but he also can't contradict the prevailing theory. Everyone notices how when he hears Chunshan SQQ gets this interesting look on his face and seems to come alive, and it just confirms their relationship to everyone. In reality SQQ is just ranting and raving in his head. With how widespread and widely accepted their supposed relationship (and secret marriage according to a popular rumor) is, SQQ gets called Widow Shen (is that a thing?) more than once while at some formal sect functions. Eventually SQQ is given his own title that basically translates into "eternally grieving spouse" or "soul shattered wife" or something similar. All of it just fuels Liu Mingyan's muse. You can bet she is having the absolute time of her life. Meanwhile, LBH is having a heart attack because as soon he exited the Abyss he started hearing snippets of Chunshan and thought that SQQ had lost his soul and died. And that he had inadvertently caused it! Once LBH finds out SQQ is, in fact, alive he is simultaneously over the moon and horrified. Over the moon that SQQ missed him so much it left a mark on his soul but horrified that he had any part in sort of soul killing his Shizun.

This idea would also be interesting post-canon. It would actually be even crazier post-canon because at that point SQQ has died a ridiculous number of times. Most people only die once but SQQ is extra in everything he does and dies a whopping three times.

1.) Dying from food poisoning and going from SY to SQQ,

2.) Self-destructing and going from SQQ to Peerless Cucumber,

3.) Having his soul ripped out of his plant body and thrust back into good ol' SQQ (this wasn't really a "death" in the same vein as the other two but considering how painful the experience is for SQQ and how his soul is forcefully being dragged out of one body and shoved back into another, he definitely received some type of mark on his soul from it)