#yingxing

The Phantasmoon Games as a necessity

As Ruan Mei says herself during Arcadia of Terror & Mystery, The Lethe Below the Living, this ritual that involves sealing these husks of Voracity beneath Abundance Plaguemarks like the Panarch Elwood entails using the power of Voracity against itself while Abundance keeps these husks contained. While not all are as clearly defined as the Phantasmoon Games, they all possess the same bones as one another, even if they appear markedly different.

Which is what makes this possibility very interesting, especially when juxtaposed to one of the questions you can ask Asat Pramad during the MSQ of 4.4, In Ravages Does The Whistle Sound, of the truth behind the Phantasmoon Games. While Planarcadia's is very well-defined, it's on the planet of Vonwacq that possesses interesting parallels to the Xianzhou Luofu, both with their own "games."

The "games" of Vonwaq and the Luofu

In the planar ornament, Vonwacq's Island of Birth, of the relic set Sprightly Vonwacq, gives tale of a cycle wherein Vonwaq's own plaguemark, the Thestang Tree, would produce a monster known as a demon king that would not only be reborn every sixty years, but demand that the tribespeople of Vonwacq set aside their conflicts and send their strongest warriors to Wacq Island where they would be forced to face this monster, Supplicants of their own kind. However, this isn't the only instance of a plaguemark producing a similar monster.

In Jingliu's companion quest, Clouds Leave No Trace, and in her 4th character story, we learn of another instance wherein a "demon king" was born: the Half-Draconic Abomination, the failed byproduct Dan Feng and Yingxing's scheme to combine the essences of Dan Feng, the flesh of Shuhu, and the power of the Ambrosial Arbor in a hopeless attempt to try and revive their lost friend, Baiheng.

Now, what's also interesting is the fact that their respective Plaguemarks, the Thestang Tree and the Ambrosial Arbor, are both shown to be capable of similar kinds of creation.

The Alien Tree Seed, a trace item that's said to come from the Thestang Tree, demonstrates the same alchemical properties: it outright tells us that the Thestang Tree combines the genes of different species to create the ideal lifeform (demon king), which isn't a far cry from how the Ambrosial Arbor was utilized in the same, catalystic respect during the Sedition to create the Half-Draconic Abomination, another hybrid, Abundance being.

Both Dan Heng IL's first character story and this conversation with a Mirage Echo in A Dragon Gallant, Its Ocean Distant of Topclouded Towerthrust reveal to us what may have been the first "game" ever performed on the Luofu; not a congregation of warriors or Supplicants, but a regular maintenance of the Ambrosial Arbor that forced Yubie to drastic action, while it became a draining ritual for other High Elders like Dan Feng, an exact echo of the necessary evil these "games" became as Asat told us.

Was Yaoshi the true spreader of Abundance?

Backpedaling to what Ruan Mei said during Arcadia of Mystery & Terror, The Lethe Below the Living, Aha became the arbitrator of Oroboros' remains following the Swarm Disaster and summarily proliferated them across the cosmos, utilizing Abundance Plaguemarks as a stopgap.

Knowing this, however, challenges a long held belief in canon, especially where it concerns the Xianzhou Alliance and what they've believed all 8,000+ years of their existence.

In Ambrosial Arbor's Arrival of Investigation of Ancient Pattern Rubbings from the Luofu, it's basically summed up that when Yaoshi first appeared to the Xianzhou hexafleet, THEY blessed them with the first Plaguemark: the Ambrosial Arbor. However, with the extreme likelihood of a husk of Oroboros sealed beneath the Arbor's roots, it begs the question: was it really Yaoshi that did this?

In the mission summary of Postmodern Imagenesis, A Resounding Gong, what's summarized is the fact that Aha very much stole a Plaguemark, or a plucked branch that was eventually transplanted in the Phantasmoon Courtyard as the capstone to the Voracity interred within the planet.

It may go further, as--given the incredible shape-shifting capabilities of Elation-related beings like Sparkle/Sparxie and Asat Pramad--it may even be possible that Aha disguised THEMSELVES as Yaoshi in order to confer this blessing, not unlike how it's speculated Aha was Nous back in 3.7.

More than that, there's many telltale signs that these "games" were extremely manipulated.

In the Planar Ornament set, Sprightly Vonwacq, a shocking revelation surfaces: a higher civilization had created a control room that became the means by which the planet's games with the so-called "demon king" were orchestrated and controlled, speaking of the sophistication behind its mechanisms. And yet, this isn't the only place this is evident.

Between Investigation of Ancient Pattern Rubbings from the Luofu and Report: A Rare Plant Specimen, like the control room found beneath/within the Thestang Tree, something similar is hinted to exist beneath the Ambrosial Arbor, outright said to be a secret technology. In the report, samples from the Ambrosial Arbor are curiously noted to be bionic in nature, which fits with what we've learned.

Again, in Investigation of Ancient Pattern Rubbings from the Luofu, we're outright told that the Plaguemarks are capable of producing sophisticated technology, such as starskiffs and jade abacuses. Therefore, it would stand to reason that the Thestang Tree and Ambrosial Arbor share technological roots, and if not the Master of Elation personally fleshing out such technology, then it stands to reason the ones behind it may be connected to Aha somehow.

(Of course, this is much harder to prove, but the connection remains glaring, all the same.)

Conclusion

Ashveil's timeline within the Xianzhou

In Real Holy Laughter!, Unraveled at Daybreak, we get our first, real inkling of Ashveil's hinted connection with the Xianzhou. To put it succinctly, Ashveil was involved with the Xianzhou for decades, spanning from when he met Yingxing when he was young, to much later after the Sedition of Imbibator Lunae.

In both Primeval & Other Things, The Lethe Below the Living and in Mortenax Blade's voiceline about him, it gives us clues to a time in Yingxing's formative years when Ashveil was still active as La Mancha that he and his Master, Huaiyan, worked together to create the prosthetic arm that ultimately sealed the Shadow inside of it, and the signature sword-staff/cane that he possesses.

The next instance was told to us directly by Pearl in Real Holy Laughter!, Unraveled at Daybreak wherein she lists some of his feats, one of which includes devouring Shuhu.

For direct context to when this occurred, look no further than Dan Heng IL's second character story that details Baiheng's kamikaze gambit to both save Dan Feng (and Jingliu) and destroy Shuhu, utilizing a power that many now believe may have been Ashveil's due to the specific framing of when exactly Ashveil was said to devoured Shuhu. As you'll see in the linked post, it has screenshots from the 4.1 livestream wherein Ashveil boasts about seeing Yingxing and Huaiyan forge a certain artifact some seven or eight centuries ago, lining up with his believable involvement in the Shuhu Upheaval Period that occurred at around this time.

The last and most notable instance was displayed in Primeval & Other Things, The Lethe Below the Living when Ren undergoes his self-examination and final trial against Shuhu, wherein he revisits a memory with La Mancha who visited him directly after the Sedition, lamenting his incarcerated state and transformation. (In addition, it should be noted that La Mancha stating how "the shadow has tasted the flesh of Abundance within you" may be another piece of evidence that he was involved in the Shuhu Upheaval Period.)

It should also be mentioned that La Mancha being pursued by Cloud Knights in Letters to the Detective may also be telling due to the fact that we don't know if La Mancha was allowed in the Shackling Prison at the time after the Sedition, but what's clear is that the liberation never happened; Yingxing was resigned to atonement, and La Mancha respected that. Still, trespassing can still be a serious crime.

It should also be noted, however, in File Repository: Ally — Rangers that this pursuit might not be as dire as Ashveil interprets it. If connected, then said Cloud Knights might also be a part of those wanting to reach out to the Galaxy Rangers to reestablish an alliance, especially to their leader.

And lastly, while this may be more circumstantial than anything, in Medical Disputes on the Ship of Fools, Welcome to Arcadia, Ashveil's lines here hint that he might've known Dan Feng, as he recognized the surname, but not Dan Heng himself.

Voracity & Resurrection?

Now, the main reason I am asking this question in the first place is specifically because of what was learned in 4.3.

During Arcadia of Mystery and Terror, The Lethe Below the Living, Ashveil congregates with people like March, Ruan Mei, and Tingyun in the Tavern while brainstorming the struggle against Asat Pramad. One of the topics that crops up is the circumstances surrounding the trend that began cropping up after the Swarm Disaster: AHA went out of THEIR way to scatter Oroboros' body like a many-headed hydra, suppressed it with Abundance (like the Planarch Welwood), and siphoned the power of Oroboros' own Path.

As I've gone through before in another meta, it's incredibly likely that this trend found its way aboard the Luofu, as there are many clues hinting to this.

This seems to be the case as told by Evanescia in Postmodern Imagenesis, A Resounding Gong or a Clashing Cymbal, So Laughed the Masses.

It's in Dan Heng IL's first character story that points the strongest to this possibility, that the "maddened and frenzied dragon" may actually be a husk of Oroboros sealed beneath the Ambrosial Arbor's roots. Which leads to another question: if this is the case, could this Oroboros fragment been responsible for the disaster of the Sedition?

What is summarized by Jingliu in her companion quest, Clouds Leave No Trace, doesn't mention Oroboros/Voracity being involved in the process at all. However, I don't think that eliminates the possibility.

In Species of the Galaxy: Wubbaboo and the adventure mission, Floating Grease Chronicles, both hint at the possibility of how the death of a Leviathan becomes the vehicle that begets life, which could be compared to a sunken ship becoming a habitat for sea life to flourish.

Now, it can't be entirely overlooked that the insinuated formula for the Sedition is primarily summarized as Abundance (Shuhu) + Permanence (Transmutation Arcanum) = the Half-Draconic Abomination.

However, through Taoran in Ebb of Past Sins, Finest Duel Under the Pristine Blue (II) and the Kind Female Voice in DHIL's companion quest, The Dragon Returns Home, we're reminded that the Transmutation Arcanum is the process or ritual that achieves new life, not necessarily the means alone by which he tried to reincarnate Baiheng.

What's more, the possibility that Long and THEIR Scions (like the Vidyadhara) being related to or descended from Leviathans is a crucial component in understanding the point I'm trying to make. And if anything, informs why Baiheng was revived as the Half-Draconic Abomination.

We learn as much in Jingliu's 4th character story during the Sedition when Dan Feng expresses disbelief that the disaster unfolded so horribly. The anticipated outcome was Abundance (Shuhu) + Permanence (Transmutation Arcanum) = Reviving Baiheng as a new High Elder.

Something extremely similar transpires in Amphoreus in Styxia Fables, Castorice's backstory, in a way, being an allegory to the Sedition and what they tried to achieve in a similar disaster.

Again, in Arcadia of Mystery & Terror, The Lethe Below the Living, like the dragon in Castorice's story was corrupted by the Black Tide, the "maddened and frenzied dragon" below the Ambrosial Arbor, which may very well be a husk of Oroboros, was also corrupted. And with it inevitably being part of the Transmutation Arcanum Dan Feng tried to utilize to bring back Baiheng, instead created the Half-Draconic Abomination.

Yingxing: inspired or helped?

Now, gathering all these pieces of evidence together, you may notice--starkly--that Ashveil had no discernible part to play in the Sedition nor in the creation of the Half-Draconic Abomination. And that is very much the case.

Between the Passerby's Roaming Dragon Bracer of the relic set Passerby of Wandering Cloud, and the Divine Querying Master Smith relic set, Smith's Unbridled Boots, it paints the same, deliberate picture. That both Dan Feng and Yingxing went through with the Sedition, and dearly paid the price for it. However, that doesn't mean I still don't have questions.

In A Dragon Gallant, Its Ocean Distant, of Topclouded Towerthrust, we're met with a highly interesting conversation within a Mirage Echo: that between Yingxing and Dan Feng and the former being allowed inside Scalegorge Waterscape to research a mysterious topic for a few hours. While we never learn what it was he researched specifically, many did and still believe it was related to reviving Baiheng.

Backpedaling to what we know now years later, between Yingxing outright knowing how to handle and seal a husk of Oroboros within Ashveil's prosthetic arm, it informs us of the fact that he likely had awareness of how to deal with a husk of Oroboros, let alone the segment that exists beneath the Luofu's Ambrosial Arbor.

Which begs the question: did Yingxing go forward with this idea, based on his acquaintanceship with La Mancha at the time, in constructing a plan to revive Baiheng, one of his dearest friends? Would this plan have involved the life-creating origination of Oroboros as a Leviathan? For now, we can't know for sure, but the possibility is highly intriguing.

Conclusion

To make a long story short, my thinking behind this is Yingxing's friendship with La Mancha, in making his prosthetic, may have granted him the background necessary to help with Dan Feng's plan to try and resurrect Baiheng. That his unique understanding may have granted him overconfidence in thinking he and Dan Feng could defy the Vidyadhara's destiny and resurrect their friend as a High Elder, even if not as herself.