A/N: Hey Shonpufi here!
Sorry that I'm posting this chapter so late, but I was really busy today
I've been doing this essay for my English class. Finished the rough draft, about five pages, 1500-ish words. I then realized it had to be 2000 words.
...By the end, I somehow wrote 10 pages, 3407 words.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
A/N: WARNING!!! I would like you to remember that this is an AU, primarily because it allows me to edit things on a small scale and shift them as I want.
So, if the canon Genshin timeline seems funky, it's on purpose. It's all so that I can fit in characters and fill in the blanks of the lore.
Just puting it out there cus i know some of yall are gonna bitch that "No, this should happen before this."
Also, I'm trying to write scenes that are more "Heartfelt" or "Emotional." If you're a writer, you know how hard it is to write the words and emotions you want to convey without making it sound weird or cringey.
That's why I'm asking you all, as an audience that hopefully enjoys my works, to give feedback.
All constructive criticism is welcome!
WC: 3762
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-Meliodas POV-
*Knock* Knock* *Knock*
"Wake up, it's your turn to make breakfast." Jingliu, knocking from the other side of the door, eagerly attempted to wake me up.
"Ugh, it's morning already?" I groaned in sleepy annoyance as Jingliu woke me up. My hair was messy, and a trail of dry saliva was plastered along my lower chin.
"I'm up!" I shouted, hoping that would stop the hungry crane from knocking on my door even harder.
After a few seconds, I began to hear Jingliu's distant steps as she walked away.
Getting out of my bed, I immediately headed to the shower.
A sigh of relief escaped my lips ass warm water began to come out of the shower head, hitting my face.
I know what you may be thinking
Did they have showers back in ancient Teyvat?
Well, the answer is yes!
Despite the time difference of 6,000 years between my present and this past, the history and development of this city go even further back in time.
So, I'm pretty damn sure that they should have managed to make a proper shower in that time. And they did.
Of course, they aren't super advanced with steel buildings and cars, but a mix of technology while using magic to cover the stuff they haven't been able to figure out.
These people have literal fucking magical sky boats, but no cars.
Anyways, I've strayed too far from the main topic.
It's been a few days since I arrived in the Xianzhou Luofu. Currently, I am staying on one of the Xianzhou floating islands where Jinglius's home is located.
Yeah, you heard that right. I'm currently staying with Jingliu.
Apparently, despite Wukong being my sensei or master, whatever he refers to himself as, I was now Jingliu's responsibility since she was the one who brought me here.
And so, I ended up staying with Jingliu in her home.
I thought she would at least complain or object to Wukong about my accommodations, but she stayed quiet and accepted.
But what weirded me out the most was the massive grin and thumbs-up the old monkey gave me before he disappeared to do, God knows what.
Anyway, so far, I've been living here. At first, Jingliu was a bit distant and quiet. She was always in her backyard training with her sword or doing some random Chinese shit like calligraphy. But, as they say, the fastest way to a woman's heart is through her stomach!!!
And let's say that her stomach is pretty big for such a skinny woman. The girl can chug down a whole ramen in a minute.
But thanks to my highly ranked cooking, I managed to get her warmed up to me, and also severely addicted to my cooking.
She now keeps her teachings paywalled, and the payment?
It is food...
Well, not that I mind. It's nice to cook for someone. That's probably one reason why cooking is one of the skills I developed a lot during my time as the girls' parent.
Seeing the smiles on their faces each time they took a bite was nice...
Wait, what was I talking about?
Geez, I keep forgetting shit.
Oh, yeah! From the three days that I've been here, I've actually come to learn a lot about this place.
Apparently, the "Xianxhou Luofu" is the product of the fall of the Seven Dragon Sovereigns.
After the Heavenly Principle descended and usurped a portion of their power, and banished them from what is called the "Light realm", things went into chaos.
They were all banished to the human realm, which was divided into seven realms. Each realm is named after the element of its dragon sovereign, such as "The Land of Wind" or "The Land of Earth."
Because of their fall, a huge power vacuum was created, and this was before humanity's arrival. A huge war was waged between fifteen different divine beings whose power was only below that of the seven dragon sovereigns.
In the end, only one of those gods came out victorious. Sun Wukong, the "Divine Clouded Step".
Yeah, the old man is someone whose strength was only under the Seven Dragon Sovereigns.
But despite Wukong's victory, it was short-lived, as the Heavenly Principle sealed a lot of his power within the headband he wore at the end of the war.
After that, Wukong rallied his followers, comrades, and brothers to the Land of Earth, establishing the Xianzhou Luofu.
And after that, 400 years later, Humanity arrived after The Heavenly Principle finished preparing the world for humanity's arrival.
Years passed, and humanity became prosperous. But Wukong, not wanting to get involved with the beings that The Heavenly Principle brought to this world, hid the Xianzhou Luofu behind a massive illusionary barrier.
Well, that's the basic lore of this place. I'm sure there's a lot more stuff they haven't told me, but that's for later.
After my shower, I immediately dried myself up and put on my clothes.
I'm pretty excited today, as it's supposed to be the day that Wukong really starts to teach me, or at least starts to show me around the Luofu and introduce me to other important figures around here.
Shit. I just have to feed the crane first; otherwise, she'll be cranky all day.
-3rd POV -
After a quick breakfast, Jingliu led Meliodas to a half-sized floating island located south of the Xianzhou. Usually, one would take a sky boat to get there, but one was unnecessary as they both could fly.
"Damn..." Meliodas whistled in awe as he arrived on the island.
Just by being on the island's edge, he could see and sense the abundant growth of magical plants and trees. But that wasn't what was most impressive; what was remarkable was the stupid amount of [Spiritual Energy] bundled up in this single island, which was helping the environment grow to this level.
"Amazing, right? I never get tired of this place's beauty, "Jingliu spoke softly.
"Dan Feng is the second strongest being here in the Luofu. The amount of excess spiritual energy that he gives off is enough to nurture the environment of this island" Jingliu informed as she began to step deeper into the forest, Meliodas following right behind her.
'So he's Dang Feng here, huh?' Meliodas wondered in his mind. In Honkai: Star Rail, he went by the name "Dang Heng", but went as Dang Feng in his first life, otherwise known as his previous incarnation.
After a few seconds of walking, a thick fog began to surround them both from all sides.
"A barrier?" Meliodas thought. As soon as the fog enveloped them, his senses weren't able to feel anything besides his own body. Even Jingliu, who was walking casually right in front of him, seemed as if she would disappear if he took his eye off her for even a second.
Jingliu looked back at Meliodas. Even without sensing his spiritual energy, Jingliu could sense his tenseness. "Be careful and stay close. Even I have gotten lost in here before."
"Understood" Meliodas nodded.
Quickly skipping towards her side, Meliodas stretched his hand out to hers, swiftly intertwining hands with Jingliu.
"W-What are you doin-?!?!"
"You said to stay close, right~?" Meliodas snickered with a cheeky smile.
Jingliu wanted to shoot down his reasoning, but... technically, he was right, right?
Holding hands would be the most efficient and safest way for them both to avoid getting lost.
"F-fine..." Jingliu muttered under her breath in embarrassed indignation.
Seeing her give in, Meliodas grinned inwardly.
You'd be surprised, but Jingliu was a surprisingly easy woman.
Not in a rude way, of course. It's just that most "Romantic" gestures that wouldn't work back in Meliodas's old world work pretty well on her, or rather, they work especially well in this world.
Take the "I'm holding your hand so that we don't get lost" move he just pulled.
If you pulled it on a normal woman from Earth, they would consider it "cringey" or "overused".
The reason for this is the "Media".
These types of moves are shown in movies, books, and manga so often that people don't really get the feelings one should have when being hit with them for the first time.
But that isn't the case here since none of that type of media exists, thus making his "romantically unexpected" moves super effective on Jingliu.
In simple words, she was a shy maiden despite all that seriousness and strength.
Of course, that doesn't mean that she'll get swoon by anything. Just as she rejected the master from the Ping tiger clan, it was because she could sense the lecherous intent coming from him, something that she couldn't sense coming from Meliodas at all.
This doesn't mean that Meliodas doesn't lust for Jingliu. It's just that he got really good at hiding his lust during high school. It was a very interesting moment in his life...
Meliodas continued to walk hand in hand with Jingliu for the next five minutes. Trying to hide his grin as much as he could, he began to wiggle his fingers as his fingers were intertwined with hers, causing her to blush even more profusely.
"S-stop it!" She shouted at Meliodas, her cheeks red as blood.
"Stop what? I'm just making sure you don't accidentally slip away~"
"I don't believe rubbing your fingertips against mine assists you in that at all!" She retorted.
But despite her complaints, she didn't pull away...
Jingliu didn't know why, but she didn't mind the teasing. Perhaps it was because she found it rather endearing?
No, that wasn't it...
"Jingiu?" Meliodas called her out, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Focusing her thoughts back to reality, Jingliu realized they had finally traversed the magical fog, leading them to a beautiful garden.
Beautiful rows of flowers stretched out throughout the horizon, and many types of magical trees were neatly placed along a stone path. Following the stone tile path, they finally arrived in front of a fancy white Gazebo beautifully adorned with carved dragons coiling around each support beam.
Looking inside the Gazebo, Meliodas noticed that there was a group of people drinking tea together.
The first person was Wukong. He was wearing his usual attire.
Second was Jing Yuan, who was wearing his general uniform.
The third person was a man that had fair skin, long black hair with red tips, and red eyes with slitted pupils. He wears an oriental-styled black tailcoat with red clothed insides and gray trousers.
The fourth man is a tall, slender young man with black hair, fair skin, and turquoise eyes with red eyeliner. He has sharp ears but also blue horns like those of a Chinese dragon. His attire is a white sleeveless shirt with a cutout on the chest and long, white sleeves with golden and teal-colored accents. He wears black fingerless gloves and a teal sash with a blue seal surrounded by golden leaves. His pants are black, and his long knee-high boots have white and golden accents.
Finally, the fifth person was a Foxian lady. Her hair was light purple, and she wore a fashionable sky rider uniform.
'Baiheng, Dan Feng, and...Blade?' Meliodas thought in confusion. He was pretty sure he would see him as his previous identity, Yingxing, but not Blade.
His looks were all the same, the only difernce was that his gaze was soft, his eyes filled with a sort of serenity and wisdom.
'Wait...' Taking a closer look, Meliodas noticed that his pupils were slit shaped, just like a lizard was.
'Oh, so that's what it is!' Meliodas concluded.
In HSR, Blade's previous incarnation's identity was Yingxing, a member of short-lived race. His hair was already turning white, and his skin filled with wrinkles, while his fellow High Cloud members looked as young as they did many years ago.
But that wasn't the case now. Right now, Blade, or rather Yingxing, seemed to be part of a long-lived Adepti race, changing his appearance to the one he has now.
"Jin-Jin!!!" Baiheng shouted as she rushed towards Jingliu with a grinning smile.
Making her way towards her, she crawled onto her and sat over her shoulders.
"Mhm, I missed you~" Baiheng said, lowering her face and rubbing her head against the top of Jinglius's hair.
'She's...eccentric?' Meliodas thought inwardly with a chuckle.
"Hm?" Noticing something, Baiheng's ears perked up, her nose sniffing around Jingliu.
"What are you doing?" Jingliu questioned, watching as her friend inspected every inch of her body.
"You *Sniff* smell *Sniff* different *SNIIIIIFFF*" She responded between deep inhales of Jingliu.
Reading a person's spiritual pressure can reveal a lot about them, but of course, there are many other ways to get the same result without doing that.
Thanks to Baiheng's exceptional sense of smell as a Foxian, she could sense a change in Jingliu's scent, which, somehow, could tell her how she felt.
"This...?" She stopped her sniffing, looking at Jingliu in confusion.
"You're super happy?" She asked innocently.
"Yes?" Jingliu responded, confused by her question.
"Mhm, you are super happy! I can smell it," Baiheng confirmed. The only thing that confused her was why.
Just now, she noticed a foreign scent she had never smelled before.
It was human, yet it wasn't?
Baiheng got off Jingliu and closed her eyes, her nose working overtime to detect the scent.
Little by little, she approached Meliodas with her closed eyes.
Meliodas, watching this, stood still, letting her get a good sniff of him.
He did this because Baiheng's sniffing reminded him of how a dog sniffs for scents. He would usually stick his hand out and stay still so that the dog could smell his scent, allowing him to become friendlier with it.
Right now, he was doing the same exact thing.
"Woah!? you *Sniff* smell *Sniff* weird" Baiheng muttered.
"Alright, Baiheng. Leave him alone" Jing Yuan spoke, light amusement lacing his tone.
Baiheng pouted, wanting to smell the mysterious human even more. But even so, she backed off and strided back to the table, stuffing her mouth with mooncakes and sesame balls.
"It took you less time than I thought you would, kid." Wukong spoke with amusement, his face equally stuffed with food like Baiheng's.
Even if Meliodas had Jingliu with him, Wukong expected him to accidentally break off from her and get completely lost within the magical barrier.
In fact, the fog-based magical barrier, which can cancel out living beings' senses from anything besides their bodies, can trick strong beings such as Wukong himself.
But of course, there's nothing a punch from him couldn't solve.
'Oh?' Wukong's eyes suddenly drifted down to something amusing. It was Meliodas and Jingliu holding hands!
'Hehehehe~ my plan worked!' Wukong cheered in his mind.
From the beginning, he has been trying to push them together. At first, it was mostly a joke to tease her about how she got carried, princes-style, by Meliodas when they first arrived here. But after seeing their interactions and chemistry, he now genuinely roots for them to get together.
'Heh, I can already imagine them riding off onto the sea, the sunset right behind them~... I'm shipping them off together. Yeah, that's the word! I'm shipping them' He imagined, proud of himself that he had just created a new term.
[A/N: Yes, Wukong created shipping...]
"Wipe that smirk off your face before I freeze it off..." Jingliu suddenly threatened. Her cheeks were tinted with a slight red of embarrassment, and she could feel her friends' teasing stares. The hand that was previously holding Meliodas's hand was now wielding an ice sword.
"Alright, alright, put down the sword, Jingliu. If you kill him, we won't have a slave to do paperwork." Yingxing chimed in, hoping that Jingliu won't try to kill Wukong again for the fourth time this week.
"HEY!" Wukong shouted in indignation while the rest chuckled.
With a loud sigh, Jingliu dematerialized the ice sword from her hand. "Let's go; it's time you met the others," she told Meliodas as she began to walk towards the table.
-Scene Change-
Meliodas sat at the table, surrounded by incredibly powerful people on either side. Every one of them was so strong that they could each snuff him out with a single hit.
"Incredible..." Dan Feng muttered as he inspected Meliodas closely. Reaching out, he grabbed him by the face, turning it to either side to examine him further.
'I feel like a zoo animal...' Meliodas cried inwardly while being manhandled.
As he finished, he turned to Jingliu. "Are you sure he holds the power of a dragon?" Dan Feng asked.
"Oh?" Jingliu hummed in surprise.
"At least you learned from last time. Stop masking your spiritual energy," Jingliu instructed.
Meliodas nodded and stopped concealing his soul. He had been practicing how to hide his soul since his interaction with Jingliu when they first met.
It was scary how she could feel his Eikons and Quincy lineage. Thus, he upped his game and now can mask his spiritual signature to the point that he only seems human.
Dan Feng's eyes widened. "This!? " He could sense it—the chaotic swirl that was Meliodas's souls.
Despite being human, he had multiple types of spiritual signatures.
And one of them was of a dragon.
Just like him...
In an unhesitant daze, Dan Feng placed his hand on Meliodas' chest.
*BOOM!*
*WOOOSH~!!!*
A strong surge of spiritual energy emerged from him, passing through Meliodas's body.
"What the fuck!?" Meliodas shouted in panic, his body surging with an overflowing foreign spiritual energy.
As he was about to shove Dan Feng away, a sudden pang in his chest stopped him.
"AHHHH FUUUUUCK!!!" Meliodas groaned in pain as he could feel some connection form between them, their souls.
[A/N: Is this soul fucking? I don't know.]
Meliodas could feel every drop of sadness, longing, and regret that filled Dan Feng's soul.
But... now they were constantly fading, and were now being replaced with new ones?
He was happy? No, he was...
'I see...' Meliodas finally realized what Dan Feng was doing.
Without a single drop of hesitation left, Meliodas allowed Dan Feng's spiritual energy to flow through him freely. And, so did Meliodas do the same by placing his hand on Dan Feng's heart as the rest watched in amazement.
-Dan Feng POV-
The world is truly lonely. No matter how much time passes or how many magnificent people I seem to surround myself with, there's always that little hole in my soul that's left unfilled.
Especially when you're a being such as I... a Dragon Sovereign.
From what I learned about my previous incarnation, Agdelmare was the original Sovereign of Water, who ruled along with his fellow Dragon Sovereigns.
[A/N: Agdelmare isn't the canon name for the Hydro Dragon Sovereign. In fact, there isn't one, so I made one up. The name is a mix of two names. The name is separated into two parts: "Ag" and "Delmare". Ag is short for Agnès, which means "Pure/Holy". And then Delmare, which means "Of The Sea", both being of French origin. Put them together, and it basically means "Pure Water". Ya know, since Fontain is basically France and shi. Just wanted to put that out there.]
The Sovereigns used to reside in the "Light Realm", a place that is host to creatures that harness the pure, raw, primordial elements, also commonly known as elemental beings.
That was until "It" arrived.
The "Heavenly Principle" waged a war against the Sovereigns, ultimately winning. However, the Sovereigns were stripped of some of their power and banished from the "Light Realm" along with many of its inhabitants to what is called the "Human Realm."
Of course, we didn't know that the Heavenly principle referred to it as that until they came.
Years passed, and the Sovereigns laid their roots in this mortal realm, along with a new race: Humanity.
Although new, everyone knew who they belonged to, thus they left them alone, allowing them to flourish.
But things weren't peaceful for long, as for the time the Sovereigns laid "Quiet" was the time they plotted against the Heavenly principle.
The Great War of Vengeance began, a war in which the Sovereigns attempted to reclaim their power and realm.
But in the end, many of the Sovereigns either went into dormancy or hiding... or fell.
But despite their falling, death isn't the end for a Sovereign.
WE aren't just mere elemental dragons; we are THE elemental dragons. Our presence alone represents the seven elements of the world. And our existence is deeply tied to the land and its ley lines.
So, when one of us Sovereigns dies, our souls don't dissipate and "return" to our "origin."
Instead, we are reincarnated.
Or, as far as my knowledge goes, only I have reincarnated.
I can't remember much at all about who I was before. All that's left of the other me are these... fragments of memories and emotions.
Yes, Agdelmare longed for what humans called a "family."
He watched over them in curiosity as they reproduced and lived with each other, growing both as people and as a population.
That's why, in the beginning, I accepted Wukong's friendship.
I wanted to know about what this "Family" concept was.
And I did gain a lot from it... Except for the one thing I longed for.
Even IF we were friends, he still respected me as one of the Seven, the same as the others.
And from what I have witnessed in my life, and from these vague fragments of memories and emotions, that wasn't a "Family" at all.
Neither were we unrestrained in each other's presence, nor were we related in blood. I even attempted to find others of my kind, but either they were drakes, not even close to being a dragon in body or soul, or they were mindless and uncivilized.
At this point, I had given up hope...
That was until my ears caught this conversation between Wukong and Jingliu about a human with a "Dragon's Soul."
That is why I wanted to meet him, my last and only chance.
And now that I am pouring my heart and soul into him after confirming that he was indeed one possessing a dragon soul, I can only hope that he will do the same in return.