Fanfiction: Mo Yuan and Shao Wan - Chapter 1 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)


**I am trying my hand at Shifu fanfic because there is not enough Shifu in the world. Instead of meddling with the magic and beauty of Bai Qian and Ye Hua’s love story or making her enjoy a threesome (I have to admit I was tempted), I am continuing Tong Qi Gong Zhi’s "Prologue of the Three Lives Three Worlds Buddha Trials", which is believed to be the beginning of Mo Yuan’s love story, though it’s unclear whether she will continue it herself.**
If you want to read the original prologue and a very funny story about how Mo Yuan and Shao Wan met at school, go here

 
Now, seeing how there is so much witty talent gathered on this blog at the moment, I want to invite you all - yes, you Peaches - to help me with the story. There are several different ways in which you can contribute. 

1) you can comment, constructively criticise - and suggest how the story should continue. 

OR
2) you can write a chapter yourself. They can be short!
 

If you are interested in writing a chapter, let me know in the comments. I will then coordinate and define a sequence - each writer hands the story over to the next writer. We will take care of the editing if it is needed. The only rule is that you have to follow the logic of this universe and consistently develop the characters and that not more than about a week should pass between chapters.

Chapter 1

written by kakashi
Edited by JoAnne

Mo Yuan stood on the grand terrace at Kunlun Mountain, gazing at the familiar scenery of distant mountains and clouds.

He was waiting for his bride.

He felt … apprehensive. The God of War, usually so calm, was not calm at all.

His disciples had decorated the entire school in rainbow colors, following the custom of the Celestial Tribe. Day after day since the announcement of the joyous event, their barely contained excitement had disturbed the peace he valued so dearly. His yearning to flee into seclusion and not come out for ten, twenty, maybe thirty years had grown stronger and stronger.

All his life, he had followed and enforced rules, as was expected of the venerated God of War and son of Father Immortal. Never once had he not done what was expected of him. And now, it was expected that he would take a wife and beget an heir. 360’000 years old and never married; it was extremely improper.

He felt so tired. All gods were, at his age. But when he looked at his two oldest friends, he saw that they had changed in his 70’000 year long absence. Dong Hua Dijun, the man who had vowed to remain celibate for the sake of the realms, had fallen in love with someone so young she was almost a child. He had broken the law and had been punished for it. But that was all irrelevant to him, it seemed. He might have lost most of his powers, but he was …. happy. Dong Hua Dijun, the son of a rock, a man said to be without emotions, was happy! His other friend, Zhe Yan, who claimed to stay away from the affairs of the world and yet couldn’t help but meddle, was happy too. He grew peaches, he brewed wines and he spent his days (and nights) enjoying Bai Zhen’s company.

Only Mo Yuan wasn’t happy. This by itself was not out of the ordinary. Groomed from a very young age to continue his father’s legacy, he had never even considered his own emotions; they were irrelevant if they even existed.

Now, this was no longer true. He was not happy and he felt it every day. He desired an emotion he had not even been able to name until recently, an emotion he only realized he had had, now that he had lost it. And he had a very hard time adjusting to it.

When had he lost control over himself? When had he changed and what had changed him? He did not have to think long about this once he asked this question - but it was too late already.

The regret he felt when he thought of Si Yin, his “Little Seventeenth”, who had brightened his life for 20’000 years before he sacrificed his soul to save the worlds, was still almost strong enough to bring tears to his eyes. Maybe there would always be regret. His much younger twin brother had snatched her away while Mo Yuan lay soulless in Yanhua Cave. Before he even knew what he felt.

The God of War's return was still considered miraculous and was already part of his life legend (there were songs sung too, but he refused to hear them), but he himself knew exactly why he had come back. Because of her. Almost scattered into nothingness, the particles of his soul had remembered his promise to return. It helped that she kept his body intact with her blood, provided him with a powerful, magical anchor in the vast emptiness. Of course, he remembered nothing but a feeling - a feeling of constant urgency, of wanting something, having to do something, of assembling, gathering. He also remembered unfathomable pain, beyond anything he had ever experienced before. It had left him frail and weak and incredibly tired … he had not fully recuperated, even now. He was well versed in keeping this a secret, though it was very hard to fool Zhe Yan.

Beyond feeling bereft of an emotion he never thought would matter in his life, this deep regret he couldn’t shake disturbed Mo Yuan. He was far too old and knowledgeable to question Fate. And Bai Qian and Ye Hua were fated, it was written all over them. Even before Ye Hua had taken physical form, Si Yin had taken care of the Golden Lotus. Her fondness for this plant had always pleased Mo Yuan, since he knew that it housed his little brother’s spirit. It made so much more sense now, her attachment to this plant and the plant’s special reaction to her.

Finally meeting his twin brother after hundreds of thousands of years had felt like reaching a new level of cultivation after a difficult spiritual journey. Something that had been missing from his life was suddenly there and it made him more complete than he was before. There was so much that felt familiar about the stern looking, black-clad young man - and yet, it was the differences that mattered the most. Ye Hua was not him. He had his own difficulties as Crown Prince of the Nine Heavens, soon to be the new Heavenly Lord once he regained enough power. And fate had given him Si Yin, Seventeenth, Bai Qian of Qing Qiu. Him, Ye Hua. Not him, Mo Yuan.

Regret, however deep, was all he felt though, never jealousy. He loved his brother, with the special love reserved for younger brothers. And he loved his little nephew. And he loved his brother’s wife. He loved her too much, of course, and not how you should love a sister-in-law - but she did not know and he hoped this would never change, because it would make things even more awkward than they already were. Ye Hua, he was certain, did know. Not that they had ever spoken about it, but he saw it in his younger brother's eyes, a certain tenseness when Mo Yuan was around, uncertainty, even traces of fear.

Ever since Ye Hua had been born, people had either mistaken him for Mo Yuan or compared him to him, since they looked (almost) exactly the same. Mo Yuan knew that Ye Hua had had to prove himself different from the legend, different and better for millennia. He had reached the status of “High God” earlier than Mo Yuan and that still was a source of pride for the young Crown Prince. That there was competition between them at all saddened Mo Yuan. Their true parents were no longer - they only had themselves.

Mo Yuan felt close and at the same time very distant from his twin brother. They did not spend a lot of time together since Mo Yuan had returned, there was no time. After Ye Hua came back from the quasi dead himself, the wedding preparations had started - and after the very grand wedding (Mo Yuan had left the event as soon as etiquette allowed), the Crown Prince had been swamped with administrative tasks. It was also possible that Ye Hua deliberately kept himself so busy. Mo Yuan hadn’t exactly pressured him for a meeting either.

And now, Mo Yuan stood here and waited for a woman he had never met before. A woman who had been deemed “worthy” of him by those who knew about such things, a very young high goddess, a very virtuous woman, in the lineage of the Lord of Numinous Treasures. Zhe Yan had calculated the most auspicious date and time - this was particularly important in his case, given Mo Yuan's status - and that time had come.

After the wedding ceremony today and an appropriate wedding feast a bit later, she would live here at Kunlun Mountains with him. He would continue teaching and meditating and be venerated by all. Not much would change, probably. But what could he give a young, virtuous woman? Maybe he would grow to love her, like Zhe Yan had told him. He almost hoped he would.

But today, on this most joyous of days, Mo Yuan felt apprehensive and lost and wanted nothing more than to hide in his meditation cave. No breathing exercises changed this. The turmoil he felt was scaring him more than anything he had experienced before.

Suddenly, Kunlun Mountains lurched. The Dragon Bone shuddered, the divine energy flickered, and the earth shook with a thunderous clap that deafened lesser deities for days. Just like that, this auspicious day turned into the opposite. 

Mo Yuan immediately recognized the immense energy that had shaken the world. It was Demonic Energy. And a familiar one at that: It belonged to his nemesis and worst enemy, the High Goddess Queen Shao Wan, long dead Ancestor of the Demon Tribe.

Chapter 2