Self talk here but if I were to do a crossover of MXTX's works I would absolutely have Shen Jiu and Wei wuxian meet. Not only due to the vast, horribly vast differences in their personalities and their ideals (caring for the rest at the expense of yourself vs. hiding the crimes you've done for your survival) but also because Shen Jiu is the prime example of becoming a great cultivator despite your humble beginnings, yet it also reassures him that to become such a cultivator, he must hide away everything that has made him different in the first place.
For the most part, MDZS is talking about the classism within the martial arts world, this wuxia world specifically. But upon bringing Svsss(PDIW to be more accurate) and TGCG into the mix, Wei Wuxian is no longer the only character that has humble beginnings. And even if Wei Wuxian knows about Jin Guangyao, it keeps being a constant reminder that he can only be someone respected if he agrees with the rest. If he become someone he isn't.
And yet when Shen Jiu starts to open more about who he really is, probably having nowhere else to go now that the one and only Emperor of 3 realms is out for his ass, Wei wuxian and him have some common differences that makes them stick to each other and bring out the best for the sake of everyone's survival.
(Beware this has somehow become a drabble idea below)
I'd mostly put their meeting of Shen Jiu being a ghost that just walks around the burial mounds (former Qing Jing Peak before Bingge decided to release hellfire him here alongside his body.) Unable to find peace for all the things he had done in life that made him regret everything. And then one day, finding this boy, exhausted, to the brink of death, and yeah, absolutely should have died where it not for whatever cultivation he is doing right now. He tends to the boy, having nothing else to do in this desolate place, and with the knowledge of his former peak, as well as the rest of the knowledge he has done while trying to escape Luo Binghe for the remaining years of his life, he knows a thing or two about refining resentful energy (heaven knows he is using most of it right now to never be under the Emperor’s clutches) so he helps the boy live, and the youth thrives on that survival.
A few months in as he lives, as he learns to play his flute and gather enough strength, Wei Wuxian tells his story to his sort-of-master, from the new clans to the hatred to the stories of his family, his last remaining siblings. Shen Jiu can no longer resent anyone else, so he doesn't become jealous of the boy and instead finds these new stories somewhat, amusing. Boring to a man who lived many things, but something worthwhile as he lives here, alone.
Shen Jiu never had a reason to eat and he doesn't plan to, but he has to get food for the boy, so he haunts some places here and there, scaring weird loons while this child laughs about the way they screamed and fled from his sight. He often wonders to Shen Jiu why he doesn't reveal that gloomy face of his, and Shen Jiu, after much pestering (and somehow the boy never pushing the line, as though he has dealt with someone like this before), he relents to tell his story, not his background, and leaving a lot of details here and there, but Wei Wuxian gets it, this tired, worn down ghost was once the most famous cultivator from the most famous peak lord of his era. Shen Qingqiu, the Xiuya Sword of Cang Qiong peak. Oh, no wonder he knew so much about martial arts.
But he can't believe it at first, such a deflated ghost once the most beautiful and prestigious man, until his secrets where found that is. He is likely more remembered for that than the rest, although Wei Wuxian developed over the months a bit more of an interest for those hints of a humble life than for the dramas that are heard in all 3 realms.
Half, unable to leave this place and half unwilling to be recognized by anyone else, Shen Jiu is left to ponder about his life again in the silence of the Burial Mounds, sometimes finding new corpses to bury, other times finding the ash of his past sect. He does ponder whenever or not it is a good idea for him to have raised yet another revenge filled lunatic and set it free in this world, but at least he feels calm knowing that the youth isn't out to kill him in any way.
However, it seems the youth, no longer so youthful though, is absolutely out to irritate him when they find each other again. And with no explanation whatsoever, Wei Wuxian delivers him some 50 or so people under his care. His and Wei Wuxian's care.
Everything then starts to bring him back to those days in Qing Jing Peak; A-Yuan's playful attitude the same as Ning Yingying when she first entered his peak. Wen Ning's respectful obedience like that of Ming Fan. The small herbs slowly being planted, turning back the green from a long lost bamboo forest. The kindness of the Granny Wen and Si-shu almost reminiscent of his assended Shizun.
And that fight between Jiang Cheng, who Wei Wuxian informs him of being the same brother he once gave the golden core to, the same brother he live and fought alongside for many years. It almost strangles him to see a vivid picture of Bai Zhan's peak lord in him. Shen Jiu, while dealing with his new disciple's injuries, slowly unwraps everything he sees in him, the path of revenge Luo Binghe has taken, the path of glory Shen Jiu has taken, all of that is what Wei Wuxxian is slowly becoming.
But unlike Binghe, he will not last any longer, and he doesn't want to become a resentful ghost like his master, he has to find a way to leave his demonic cultivation all behind. Ironically, the same man and the same teachings that made him live had been the same ones to ruin him, just as he had ruined himself and the Emperor’s mind forever.
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