Work Text:
A story always needs conflict. As an author, Shang Taio understood that. Sure he could write a fluff piece about a boy named Luo Binghe who lived a lovely life. He had a devoted mother, demon father and he was loved. This Lou Binghe would grow up on the silver spoon of his father being Demon Emperor. This Luo Binghe would be charming, arrogant and slightly spoiled but who cares! He would be a devoted leader and continue his fathers legacy.
This Luo Binghe would be boring.
As much as his anti-fans used to tell him, they didn’t want this Luo Binghe. They wanted the Luo Binghe they got. A cruel man who is a victim to his circumstances,abused by his teacher and it forged him into the man he became. Desperate for love and intimacy that he was unable to find in hundreds of wives. Building an empire from the ashes of his own innocence.
A story without conflict is not a story at all. Proud Immortal Demon Way was not a happy novel. It was the tale of a cruel world that is so chock full of beasts and demons that the average human life is painful. You live at the will of your leader until his head is ripped off by a demon that the local cultivation sect missed.
You can have anything happen to your main characters because a story is just a story. It doesn’t need for every character to be happy or live a fulfilling life. A story needs intrigue, a sense of world and plot points.
So most characters had a tragic backstory. Shen Qingqui was bought and beaten into the horrifying man he became, until the fake tales of his actions were indistinguishable from the truth. Liu Qinqqe neglects his students the same way he was until he worked his way into an early grave. The Cang Qiong Mountain Peak is burned to the ground countless innocent disciples, dying undeserved deaths. The Proud Immortal Demon Way didn’t need to be intellectual. It didn’t need to be what his critics wanted from it. It was a world over 6000 chapters strong and paid for Shang Taio’s rent and food. That was all that mattered.
As Shang Taio stood in a storm, he watched a basket bob down the Luo river. An innocent baby lay inside it, with a blanket and a message. He would be found in a couple of hours by a washerwoman who was never given a name and would die of perfectly preventable disease. He would – in around 20 years – raise hell and commit all the most atrocious crimes in the name of power.
Of course he could stop that right now. He could simply pluck Luo Binghe from the river. Find a parent who wouldn’t die in the next 10 years and let him live a life that wouldn’t drive him to extreme acts of power.
Unfortunately a story needs conflict and as much as he would like to, Shang Taio isn’t a person here. He is a character. This isn’t a world made for him. This was Proud Immortal Demon Way and Luo Binghe is the protagonist. At least, this way Shang Taio still knows where Luo Binghe would be in the event he does want anything to change.