SVSSS Read Along

[x_los]

excaliburedpan and I both happen to be reading this danmei book at the moment, so I thought I'd throw up a post for any comments if anyone wants to read along now or later, and shove my locked-twitter read-along thoughts somewhere more accessible. I'm going to break it up by blocks of chapters, then do an Overall Thoughts subsection. Assume spoilers. 

There are 81 novel chapters, then Extras. 

Comments

Chapters 76-81

[x_los]

Chapter 76: Return to the Abyss
Chapter 77: Maigu Demonic Ridge
Chapter 78: Past Faces Long Gone
Chapter 79: Former Affection is Lost Forever
Chapter 80: Key Item
Chapter 81: The Story Begins

Re: Chapters 76-81

[x_los]

- 'Qi Qingqi placed her teacup down on the table rather heavily and raised an eyebrow as she spoke. “Of course. How could that be indeed? If Luo Binghe dared to return to Cang Qiong Peak now, you’ll see just how we take care of scum like him!”'

this is a bitch who knows what's up

- "Mu Qingfang, sitting off to the side with his hands in his sleeves, commented casually, “Well you’d have to be able to take care of him first.”"

huge kudos for Qingfang for being the only one capable of pointing out 'to be fair, he'd just kick all our asses. yet again.'

- "Qi Qingqi didn’t let the opportunity to lecture him slide past."

no, never. not fucking once. that's how you get ants/Binghes.

- oh OH the punishment dream was plot information???? What BingGe was saying about not recognising the place?

Also I've been seeing why she time-skipped over the bamboo cottage period&while I don't love the decision I get it? it's so you can drip-feed the info to shift tones

- the existence of a sub-sect full of Officials is actually great, and very 'let's all have an Imperial exam!!'

- this set piece of the Big Battle is fucking. great? Like the VISUALS are here.

- "Wu Wang’s face continued growing paler, and the Great Master Wu Chen, seeing his continued silence, could only reply and explain. “This…it’s really too difficult to speak of. It was not our own strength that saved us, but rather that which we borrowed from another who lent us their aid.”"

THE UGLY LAUGH I JUST--bc you know, right, you just fucking.

- 'This one wouldn’t dare accept any gratitude for that which we have provided. If anything must be said of the matter, I was only trying to help Shizun.”'

YOU DARCY ASS BITCH

- "Crammed in here were all cultivators with five senses that were keen and acute. Whether or not they were in close proximity, all of them now turned towards Shen Qingqiu; hundreds of pairs of eyes, with varying gazes, enveloped him from all directions.

Spreading open his fan, Shen Qingqiu silently hid the lower half of his face behind it.

Luo Binghe sauntered in, the hem of his black outfit fluttering as a breeze wafted across; the sword suspended on his waist was surprisingly Zheng Yang1. Behind him, Mobei-Jun was on the left with his head held high, while Sha Hualing sashayed seductively on the right. Huan Hua disciples, who have long been missing in action, trailed closely behind them. "

I flopped back on the bed from the finale energy I cannot

- Politically, gotta be a weird time for the demon realms? The ppl supporting LBH are actually really YOUNG, with evident grievances with their parents' generation. LBH is only half-demon, but his dad's been awol for decades, the throne in chaos, his current plan an ambitious mess

no option for traditionalists but abstention from the conflict, LBH's integrated alliance via his human mother's Sect inheritance/personal strength have netted Sha and Mobei but NOT Sha's father--LBH is tough to subordinates in the exact ways Sha&Mobei are: is that performance?

You get some of the western conception of fairies here, with a lot about them fundamentally interlaced with humans and kind of parasitic. Demon craft industries suck a bit, they're over-reliant on this tough prey as a foodsource.

SQQ notes at the border-town that someone could make a REAL killing actually working out better-integrated trade, so like economically LBH could be VERY attractive to Hauling and Mobei: Mobei esp, bc they're Siberian essentially, &DON'T eat humans, so: what's their food source?

(what if lbh is THE HOPE of the Sha-Mobei generation bc he's been using Huan Hua resources to run trade? We know his dad's also trying to solve a famine w sowers--is that vying for power? whoever solves the problems is King?)

- also if LBH saw, when they were both 15, what Hualing did to display Strength... is he copying her? like if that's HER 'shore up my new position' playbook

- MAN tho the reoccurring 'traumatised ppl becoming bad fathers and traumatising their kids who in turn--' this has.
LBH's dad's trust is abused (at least he thinks so), he STEWS on it decades&goes nuts. (LBH might see that as a huge personal failure: didn't trust his lover/preserve their priorities, he makes a POINT of his own refusal to despair.) Meanwhile Shen Jiu kills his torturer&burns down the house, &LBH goes on to do *exactly* that.

- I am a huge sucker for the absolutely public ballads&statecraft level of devotion? no need to ask who Binghe bows to, everyone knows what god he worships

- 'Faced with Shen Qingqiu alone, Luo Binghe was now no longer the overbearing and arrogant man. He said bashfully, “Recently, I’ve been using too much demonic energy and too few spiritual energy. I’ve kind of forgotten how to use it."'

Bullshit you just want a public hug

- P fucking great that Tianlangjun was actually WELL DISPOSED as a ruler&willing to make a marital alliance&then OG Huan Hua pissed him off SO MUCH they’ve caused this whole problem themselves

- Holy fucking Shakespeare we’re doing the monk marriage plot death reveal??

- Btw also the intentional paralleling between LBH/SQQ &LBH’s Mom/her Shifu

- It’s super interesting that SQQ /gets/ how Xin Mo is using LBH to glut itself on energy/using his instability to take over, like there’s no necessary reason he should UNDERSTAND his choice at the temple as having added to that

It makes authorial sense for MXTX that he would bc she wants you to get what’s happening with the plot at this point, but then for SQQ it represents this open, hyper-attentiveness to LBH, like knowing him /as a character/ as well as a person, ‘reading’ someone IRL

- We also get into the interesting question of exactly when Binghe started to get INFLUENCED&how bad it is&which decisions were Pushed by Xin Mo: essentially Xin Mo functions textually as a parallel System--IS his dad right that he gave him the sword like oh, you want it? then ROT.

- 'Great Master Wu Chen said solemnly, “If Peak Lord Shen is willing to face him calmly, then that would be ideal.”'

THIS GUY i love Friar Lawrence sanest man in the Middle Kingdom

- I super need to know how like, Popular Shakespeare, Austen and Dickens are in China, versus are these just full fledged accidental parallels, bc no English writer COULD have done that 'Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.' beat without Austen hanging over it

- 'Originally, there were hundreds of thousands of interconnecting caves extending in all directions, but now, half of them had collapsed because of the quake' I guess your karst landscape is now a curst landscape

- also I guess we're gonna do a very literal violent plundering of the subterranean passages. i guess we're there, now. I guess this is who we are, and what we represent.

- 'Tianlang-Jun replied, “I’m used to this. Zhuzhi-Lang, not so good.”' looooool just 'eh, more of the same tbh'

- 'Tianlang-Jun curiously asked, “I thought Peak Lord Shen knew? Isn’t he always behind you?”' oh my GOD hi Binghe. hi.

- BOOM a direct self-parallel between SQQ and Su Xiyan. whelp, we've been Building to it.

- AUGH I can't believe Shen Yuan's Critical Reading Skills are what's saving the fucking day

- re the Mobeijun 'economics' theory, I think a bit about this theory the Mayans had a conflict with a nearby tribe to steal their prince to fill the religious/admin role of THEIR Prince, &the retention of huge tiers of Admin in various conquests of India

Under that logic it makes complete sense to recruit&retain SQH: because he's a trained /administrator/. &his 'plot'-juggling skills as a webnovelist/spy/civil servant are all the same skillset.

- omggggg SQQ whiiiiiining to himself about LBH going for medicine rather than sitting vigil this Princess

- oh wow it's a LOT for SQQ to do an understated Declaration where /everyone/ can hear

- 'Mingyan, let’s go! Why are you watching?!'

i think we all know why mingyan is watching.

- AUGH I'm done with the main novel I loved it fuck

- how much did Binghe know tho, re the Old Palace Master--like that's SERIOUS hatred, he has to have /known something/ re his mom, unless it was an attempt to assault HIM or revenge re SQQ

- *crawls out from under debris* so I've finished SVSSS, in large part in 2 days

it's NOT like I did nothing else either?? i did chores, played maracaibo w Katy, read some fic, posted a fic, made complex food, &INHALED this novel&compiled a livetweet, DRIVEN ON by pure hyperfocus

- also unless he does A LOT MORE in the extras I utterly nothing Liu Qingge, &am a bit annoyed at him specifically bc fandom did that inevitable thing where ppl fell in looooooove with a character with all of 20 lines&wrote a million fics&he's just a ham sandwich

loyal fighty hamman: attractive? that is it that's the best I can do for him. but naturally: loaded down with shipfic like a laden silver-boat headed back to Spain after a rich round of Caribbean pillage

- Also consider that whenever SQQ talks about Liu Mingyan’s role in the narrative as the righteous Empress who’s clever, a good cultivator, at all moral&artsy: he is unwittingly talking about his own narrative position

- also: every MXTX novel contains a major anabasis arc