#imbyah

At first, when the Old Palace Master saw Shang Qinghua outside one of the entrances to the Water Prison, dressed in An Ding yellow, he thought that Su Xiyan was making an escape attempt. That she had somehow freed herself, gotten a Cang Qiong uniform from the visiting disciples, and was trying to stealth her way out.

When he felt Shang Qinghua's spiritual energy, he could tell that it felt different from Su Xiyan's. However, he did also feel the demonic energy from her baby.

Then, the Cang Qiong head disciple and head disciple of the second ranked peak show up, calling 'Su Xiyan' by a different name. Old Palace Master is both intrigued and confused! After they leave, he goes and checks the Water Prison and finds Su Xiyan still inside. She either doesn't respond or claims not to know what he's talking when he questions her, but he sees something in her expression when he says that he saw someone else who looks exactly like her. He files this information away and resolves to keep an eye on Shang Qinghua.

When the Old Palace Master goes to attend the ascension ceremony for the next generation of Peak Lords, he finds Shang Qinghua and watches him. Here is someone with Su Xiyan's face, and everyone on the mountain is acting like this is someone else entirely, someone they all know. He's even about to be Peak Lord of An Ding! After the ceremony, he sees him leaving in distress and sends some cultivators to follow him. He also sends a talisman to Huan Hua Palace to have the guards check on Su Xiyan in the Water Prison.

Su Xiyan has taken the chance of the Palace Master and most of the highest ranking disciples being out of the sect to escape.

The Old Palace Master receives the report back that Su Xiyan is gone. He orders his cultivators to capture 'Shang Qinghua,' assuming this was all part of some trick after all. Mobei-jun and the other peak lords kill all of the cultivators he sends.

The next that the Old Palace Master is aware, Shang Qinghua is back at the sect, everyone continues to act like this is totally normal, and word reaches him that the An Ding Peak Lord has adopted a child.

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Some time shortly after all of this, Mobei-jun begins making big moves. He's always been quietly setting up his play for the throne, building support and power and taking out his rivals with Shang Qinghua's help. Suddenly, he is like a man possessed—he begins doing absolutely everything possible to take out his siblings and secure himself the place as the one and only option for the next king of the north.

This makes Linguang-jun, who would very much like to be the next king and who is growing less sure by the day that his soft, easily manipulable nephew won't kill him for the throne, very nervous. He starts looking into why Mobei-jun is making out-of-character power plays, and discovers that his nephew's human servant has had a child. Not only that, but they're courting.

Now Linguang-jun knows that Mobei-jun is trying to take the throne early because he wants to protect his human lover and child. Easy peasy, Linguang-jun just needs to use them to distract Mobei-jun from his power-grab and quickly take the throne out from under him. Killing them outright isn't the best option—it could get back to Mobei-jun and then Linguang-jun will have to deal with the full might of his fury. No, he needs something subtler. More digging reveals a perfect option—apparently, the Old Palace Master has some sort of long standing obsession with Peak Lord Shang and his child. He's sent kidnappers to try to take the child before.

So all Linguang-jun has to do is help the Old Palace Master steal away Shang Binghe, and Mobei-jun will be so distracted trying to save him that he won't notice it when Linguang-jun eats his brother's heart (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ‹𝟹

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What exactly TLJ thought was happening when he saw SQH at the battle and if he will be freed are questions that should be answered by IMBYAH, so i'll leave those a mystery for now haha

I will say, TLJ did know that SQH was not SXY when they had their fuck-or-die sex pollen adventure. TLJ initially approached pollened!SQH because he thought that he was a demon wearing the face of TLJ's lover to try to seduce him and lured SQH off intending to kill him for it. however, talking to SQH quickly made him realize that something else was going on, so instead he 'cured' him and resolved to tell his lover this funny story. SXY did not find this story as funny as he expected her to. however, neither of them had much time to linger on it, since soon after that SXY disappeared and when next TLJ heard from her, it was to draw him into the trap that sealed him away for the next fifteen years