Forgot about this but yqy wrangling his shidis

Cang Qiong Mountain Sect 'peaks' I imagine would look like

(if u squint u can see Qian Cao's hospital cliff on the left to An Ding's river port for goods transportation -to Xian shu's tall cliffs (no men peekin) and Wan jian's metal cave mining for the swords)

Imagine

Mafia!au where lawyer!sqh and bigboss!mobei evade jail every saturday

the ghost of liu qingge: i killed you, and you killed me!

the other peak lords: shen qingqiu, why’d you kill that guy?

shen jiu: motherfucker, he killed himself!

[ Shen & Luo twins, Bingqiu & Bingjiu ]

(SJ is not happy with the behavior of the smaller of the two beasts towards his brother)

A question about the disciple hierarchy in the CQM:

I was under the impression that QJP disciples were higher up the ladder than the disciples of the other peaks (excluding Qiong Ding), and I think LMY calls LBH 'Luo-shixiong' in the donghua (?)

But there's a theory that the seniority is still decided by when the disciple had entered the sect (regardless of the peak they belong to), and so NYY isn't necessarily LMY's shijie.

Could you clarify the matter, please?

Your assumption is correct! The following quote clarifies that peak seniority outranks time-of-joining seniority:

All successive peak lords had addressed each other in accordance with this ranking rather than by their order of entry into the sect. Therefore, even though he’d entered the sect quite some time after Liu Qingge, because Qing Jing Peak was ranked second—only below Qiong Ding Peak—while Bai Zhan Peak was ranked seventh, Liu Qingge still had to address Shen Qingqiu as “Shixiong,” if through gritted teeth. (Seven Seas, Ch. 24)

Though the quote specifies peak lords, it can reasonably be inferred that it also applies to disciples, as this seniority is still respected by these two before their ascension.

Cang Qiong Mountain is a bit like a coalition of twelve separate, smaller sects that all operate as one-- each peak is somewhat its own entity. How seniority is decided is first, based on peak, so all members of Qiong Ding Peak within the same generation have seniority over all members of Qing Jing Peak, and members of QDP's older generation would be addressed as " 师伯 shibo" rather than as "师叔 shishu," as QJP's disciples would address older generation members of other peaks.

Within the peaks themselves, however, seniority is decided by time of entry into the sect, with those entering earlier having seniority to those entering later.

Therefore, Ning Yingying is Luo Binghe's shijie because she entered Qing Jing Peak before him, as well as Liu Mingyan's shijie because she is part of a higher-ranking peak, despite the fact that she is younger than both of them.

Of course, there is still one point of ambiguity that is not answered in canon-- where outer disciples fit into this hierarchy, and whether an outer disciple of Qiong Ding Peak would still outrank an inner disciple of Qing Jing Peak based on peak seniority. The only example we have of outer disciples and inner disciples interacting is when Shang Qinghua interacts with the Wan Jian Peak disciples in the airplane extras, but that cannot resolve the issue as Wan Jian Peak is senior to An Ding in general, and Shang Qinghua does not interact with any inner disciples from lower-ranked peaks while he is an outer disciple. Personally, my assumption is that peak rankings still hold precedence as we have direct statements regarding the importance of this ranking, but that's a little more up for interpretation.

I do think, however, that within a peak itself, all inner disciples have seniority over outer disciples based off of genre convention-- in this way, the inner vs. outer disciple ranking is similar to the peaks' ranking and takes precedence.

Shen Yuan transmigrate as Mu Qingfang.

Shen Yuan to system: just because I spent more than half my life in a hospital doesn’t mean that I am in any way qualified to be a doctor!!!

Cang Qiong: oh. So we’ve been stressing out poor Mu-shidi so much that we caused him to go into a qi deviation so bad that he lost his memories. We also discovered just how dependent we are on him being in good health. Does this mean we shall learn how to improve and manage people’s workloads better and not be so reliant on an individual? Fuck no.

At least Shen yuan’s encyclopedia knowledge of the PIDW flora and fauna really comes in handy.

First order of busy: a general antidote that can counteract the papapa pollen.

Second order of business: forcing all the Cang Qiong sect memories to attend their annual appointments ON TIME.

(Watch Shen Yuan invent syringes and just walks around stabbing people with the pointy needle, injecting sedatives and then having his disciples cart the unconscious body to his peak for their checkup.

The biggest offender? Liu Qingge.)

[More in #shen yuan transmigrates into Mu Qingfang instead au]

its entirely unethical that there are no monster hunter/svsss crossovers. the system manager messes up and just shunts shen yuan to a holding world while trying to sort shit out, and SY just wakes up in the middle of the darj snowfields (mh:s) as a wyverian and gets taken in by hakum village. SY would go batshit insane for the whole taming monsters and keeping the balance thing, especially once he meets the hunters guild research people, and just goes 'yes, thats what i want to do' and then he proceeds to become a hunter/scholar and travel around all of the known world and into the new world.

he'd have two different sets of armor/weapons/gear of different purposes, one for all out hunting and another for quick quiet movements for field research.

some monster friends he has are a Najarala, Lagiacrus, Nerscylla, Tobi-Kadachi, Paolumu, and Beotodus (going off of MH:stories with having 6 party members total).

he just starts exploring the hoarfrost reach (23 years post system fuck up) when the system fixes the problem but then it looks at the replacement soul it chose and is just like 'oh. oh no. he's competent now. fuck.' but it cant go back on it cause of its user policy and so its forced to take This Guy and put him into the new situation, and unfortunately for the system all of SY's soul bound stuff goes with him, which means his wyverian body and his monster familiars.

the system CAN however make all of his familiars be deaged into eggs.

eventually the beast peak lord picks him off the street like a wet rag because this weird feral kid refuses to give her the eggs that he's hoarding, but shes never seen these eggs before and she really wants to study them, so she just forcibly adopts the 'kid.' he's not a kid, hes just a wyverian, who can get really really old even without cultivation, so he's like the human equivalent of a 16-year-old when he's actually around 44.

anyways, liu qingge is absolutely whipped for his weird shixiong who is both older and younger than him, who can delicately flip over a massive Earth Boaring Slime Muskrat with his spear, and who can smash a Tiger Footed Armadillo Dragon in the face with a massive hammer that shatters its skull, and who is so excited to sit down in a small roadside teahouse and rant about trophic cascade, and Liu Qingge has no idea what that is but Shen Qingre (clear restlessness/zeal) is extremely pretty when he's passionate.

Wait guys, food for thought!

In MZDS, only the most powerful cultivators become immortal. In a crossover, wouldn’t that make Shang Qinghua more powerful than literally every MZDS character because he’s not only immortal, but a Peak Lord? Would there be legends about him and the other Peak Lords, since they’re immortal cultivators like Baoshan Sanren?

Something, something, Mu Qingfang as a disciple sees constant bruises on SQH from MBJ. He thinks he knows what happening- an abusive relationship, which is technically true? But MQF thinks it’s more romantic than it is.

So he tries to talk to SQH about it. SQH deflects as he’s does, and the result of the conversation is that MQF stops seeing him around his peak! Unacceptable!

So MQF calls in the big guns- the other head disciples/future peak lords. He calls a meeting, makes a big impassioned speech about how they should stick together and help each other out, as martial siblings, and how they needed to be there for SQH!

None of them cares. This generation of peak lords are so disconnected it isn’t funny. MQF sighs, and then precedes to blackmail each and everyone of them with their medical history into helping.

(Except for LQG, who did not have a medical history to be scared of. He just went along with what was happening, part to not be left out, and part because SQQ is doing it and by damn is he being showed up by him)

Okay I've been thinking of how the digging holes as a trial might actually work as a way of assessing applicants to Cang Qiong

Firstly I think the kids have to show some level of using qi in the trial to even be considered but what attracts what peak lord varies

Bai Zhan: looks for kids who use qi to enhance their strength and endurance

Qing Jing: generally looks for kids who are strategic about where they chose to dig, making sure to pick places with less rocks and maybe directing others to harder places and use their qi sparingly but at the best moment

An Ding: takes all the extras who can use qi but for the inner disciples someone who negotiates for a better spot and/or has an efficiently made and even hole with a neat pile of dirt is preferred

Qian Cao: looks for kids who can do some healing with qi on theirs or others hands as they dig. Probably not much but just enough that their injuries are less

Qiong Ding: looks for kids who are powerful and use qi to have endurance like Bai Zhan but also who have a sense of authority or leadership and who can organise the kids around them

I can't think of what the other peaks would look for specifically but this at least gives the hole digging logic that isn't canonically given in either PIDW or SVSSS

how i imagined some of the peaks in svsss

A lot of Shen Twins AU portray Shen Yuan as the more understanding 'maybe he has a reason' brother, when in reality he's always been prone to jumping to conclusions while Shen Jiu literally stayed for decades waiting for Yue Qingyuan's explanation even if it would just boil down to 'I got tired of you'.

shen qingqiu (jiu): so what?

the other peak lords: so what?!?!?

shen qingqiu (jiu): so what if my friends work in a brothel? at least they have jobs, at least they’re active in the community. what do you morons do?

I remember a while ago I got this epical idea for a fanfiction where Shen yuan would transmigrate before binghe.

And once he realized this, he would vent all the anger from each injustice binghe went through I’d take it out on the surrounding sects because at some point each and every single one of them wrong him.

 whether he would cause them, minor inconveniences to literal crimes, was up to how he felt on the day. And then he’d become famous for it and never getting caught because of all the ridiculous loopholes in airplanes writing.

I've got a question! I know based on your blog that Ming Fan is Shen Qingqiu's senior disciple, but does that mean he was the first disciple Shen Qingqiu accepted period, or that he was the first one Shen Qingqiu promoted to inner disciple? I don't recall any mention of inner vs outer disciples prior to the Airplane extras, so I'm a bit unclear on how that might related to the position of senior disciple.

Sorta related, but do you think there may still have been other young disciples on the peak, that were selected by the previous peak lord, when Shen Qingqiu took over? I'm uncertain if the peak lords would stop selecting new disciples in anticipation of their ascension, or they would continue to select them as usual.

I suppose they could do something like bringing their designated successors along with them to the selections, then making their choices with said successor's input. Or perhaps it's entirely up to the peak lord, with some continuing to make selections on their own, others allowing their successors to advise them, and still others no longer accepting disciples (plus Bai Zhan continuing to do it's own thing, where nobody is selected, but anyone can climb the mountain and join).

At this point, I'm seriously considering making an "Explaining Canon" post about the workings and rankings of CQM as far as we know, including the different types of disciples, acceptance policies, etc. because it can get pretty confusing, and there are a lot of gaps in what canon tells us that can sometimes be filled via genre convention, but other times it's a toss-up/entirely up to interpretation. SVSSS kind of plays fast and loose with worldbuilding in general, and we already know that PIDW does too, so it does sort of make sense but at the same time it can be so confusing for fic writers!

This got long so, answer below the cut:

Ming Fan being Senior Disciple means that he is currently the most senior of Shen Qingqiu's personal disciples/Qing Jing Peak's inner disciples (for CQM, I believe those terms are somewhat interchangeable but I'll explain them more in another post). It doesn't mean he was the very first one Shen Qingqiu took-- though he was probably one of the first. We do know that SQQ has driven disciples off the peak before, so it's possible that Ming Fan had a shixiong or two that are no longer present, but it's also equally likely that he was, in fact, the first inner disciple. As for a promotion, disciples don't have to start as outer disciple and then become inner disciple-- that was SQH's situation, but Luo Binghe seems to be an inner/personal disciple from when he was first selected. My interpretation is that inner disciples are those personally selected by the peak lord, while outer disciples are either those selected by other members of the PL's generation, or those who asked to be taken into the peak and were accepted, but not actually chosen themselves. Different peaks might also have different admission policies-- perhaps An Ding Peak accepts a larger amount of outer disciples due to the manpower required, while Qing Jing Peak's ranks may be thinner. This, of course, is all just speculation-- there are plenty of possible explanations, since canon doesn't give us much to go off of in this sort of thing.

We do know that there are disciples of the PLs' generation on the mountain, with a specific example being Bai Zhan's Ji Jue, but there's nothing to say when the former generation stopped accepting disciples. It is common in xianxia, though, for a master to close their gates and stop accepting disciples altogether-- oftentimes the 关门弟子 character type I discussed here can be an exception to this, taken in after the master has normally stopped accepting disciples. My guess is that, most likely, a peak lord would stop taking young personal disciples before ascension, but there's nothing to say distinctly one way or another. Personally, though, I think it highly likely that Shen Qingqiu was also 关门弟子, and there were no others accepted after him, but that's just my headcanon.

For QJP specifically, we don't see any members aside from SQQ and his direct disciples. This doesn't necessarily mean there are no others, as we know that SQQ was not the only member of the peak when he became PL, but QJP also may be a fairly small peak, and SQQ's shixiong may have decided to leave or go often travelling after he became peak lord-- otherwise, there are other members of the peak and their disciples, we just never meet any of them in SVSSS and they are not mentioned.

I wouldn't be surprised if successors went along to the selection, perhaps even selecting their first disciples before the former generation's ascension-- this would occur once the former generation had officially closed their gates and stopped accepting disciples, passing the lineage on to their successors. It also wouldn't be surprising for successors to simply attend the selection in order to observe it. We do know that Cang Qiong holds a recruitment once every year-- so there is some way for new disciples to get onto the peak, whether it is the successors taking their own, or other members of the current leadership generation, or outer disciples being accepted without a specific master.

Ultimately, I think that CQM's Peak Lords have a lot of freedom in how they run their peaks, including how they select disciples, when they close their gates, etc. CQM really does seem, a lot of times, to be more like twelve individual small sects rolled up into one, instead of one fully cohesive unit with policies and customs uniform across the peaks. At the end of the day, we don't have very much canonical worldbuilding, so a lot of things are up for interpretation when writing fics.

If you want some ideas on how things might be run, feel free to take ideas from other xianxia/wuxia novels-- for example, Tai Sui by priest and Zhu Xian by Xiao Ding both have fairly comprehensive political/sect worldbuilding, where MXTX's worldbuilding is a bit more loose/only made note of when specifically relevant to the plot, which is more closely focused on relationships between characters.

In the end, I would absolutely love to have more canon information regarding Cang Qiong's disciple selection, and sect rules and demographics in general, as well as more about the ascension of peak lords and transfer of power... sadly, it seems we will have to forever make do with headcanons.