I'm sure readers who've made it this far have noticed that my versions of Qian Xunji and Bibi Dong follow the side-story version. So why did I choose that version of events?
Before I answer, let me ask you something: which version of Bibi Dong and Qian Xunji is more absurd—the side story's or the original's?
I think the original's versions are more absurd.
Under the original version, Bibi Dong was an ungrateful traitor, no question. Ning Fengzhi and the Upper Three Sects didn't know the names of many Spirit Hall elders, details of their Martial Souls, information about Sea God Island, the Angel Spirit Bone, or any number of other Spirit Hall secrets. Yet Yu Xiaogang could recite them all. Who told him? Bibi Dong, of course.
Bibi Dong ignored everything Spirit Hall had done to raise and train her and tried to elope with Yu Xiaogang for love. That made her an ungrateful traitor, plain and simple.
You could say Qian Xunji had good reason to punish Bibi Dong. Executing a traitor like that wouldn't have been excessive.
What Qian Xunji did to Bibi Dong in the secret chamber did not erase her wrongdoing.
But if Bibi Dong had a problem, didn't Qian Xunji have one too? His biggest problem was that he was blind to what was happening right in front of him. Powers like Spirit Hall imposed extremely strict limits on whom their successors could meet and talk to. Bibi Dong's closeness with Yu Xiaogang developed over time. Any sensible person who saw Yu Xiaogang approaching his successor with ulterior motives would have stepped in. If you've read Dream of the Red Chamber, you'll know that great houses arranged for their heirs to spend time with people who could teach them how to navigate relationships. Jia Baoyu's relationships with Xiren and Lin Daiyu, for example, were part of Grandmother Jia's efforts to develop his emotional judgment. The point was to keep an adolescent from falling head over heels for the first woman who caught his eye.
So if Qian Xunji had properly prepared Bibi Dong, she wouldn't have fallen in love with someone just because he showed her the wonders of the world.
The original plot was ridiculous. Absurd!
To me, the side story actually gave both Qian Xunji and Bibi Dong more depth.
I won't go into exactly how it did that here.
Now, let's talk about why I chose the side-story version.
This story aims to portray Yu Xiaogang as a completely hopeless waste of space. The side-story version helps me do that!
As I said, the side story gave Bibi Dong and Qian Xunji more depth. But it left one character in an awkward position: Yu Xiaogang.
How do you show that a character is exceptional? You can define who they are, place them in conflicts and difficult choices, and let their decisions reveal their character. But the original author's favorite method was contrast!
When we read Douluo Continent, we see love triangle after love triangle. In these triangles, the original author created two supporting characters to highlight how exceptional someone else was!
To highlight Tang Hao, he created Ah Yin and another man, Tang Xiao, who was nearly Tang Hao's equal. Ah Yin chose Tang Hao over Tang Xiao, and Tang Xiao stepped aside in sorrow. Didn't that make Tang Hao look exceptional?
To show how exceptional Tang Chen was, the author made him the dazzling sun of his own little universe, with Qian Daoliu and Bo Saixi as two satellites orbiting him. Tang Chen held a slight edge over Qian Daoliu, and Tang Chen could one day become a god while Qian Daoliu could not. Both men loved Bo Saixi, but she loved Tang Chen. From Tang Chen's perspective, that felt great. From Qian Daoliu's, it felt miserable. The original author used two exceptional people to make the central figure look even more exceptional, and that was how he built Tang Chen.
There were even more examples with the protagonist. Tang San loved Xiao Wu deeply, but many other women loved him without having their feelings returned. Some eventually gave up and settled for someone else, like Huo Wu, who ended up with Feng Xiaotian. Others stayed in one-sided love and refused a fallback, like Hu Liena with Yan. Even his enemy Qian Renxue secretly fell for him because he was so exceptional. Didn't all that show how exceptional Tang San was?
After Douluo Continent's second, third, and fourth installments, the original author had mastered this technique.
There was the Wang Dong'er, Wang Qiu'er, and Huo Yuhao triangle.
Wang Qiu'er loved Huo Yuhao without having her feelings returned, while Dai Huabin felt the same way about Wang Qiu'er.
Then there was the Bei Bei, Tang Ya, and Zhang Lexuan group.
In the third installment, Gu Yuena was the most beautiful woman, but she loved only Tang Wulin, showing how exceptional his bloodline was. She saved her authority for her subordinates and her tenderness and devotion for Tang Wulin. Qiangu Zhangting loved her without having his feelings returned and ended up a clown. Didn't that make Tang Wulin look exceptional?
All right, enough digression. Back to Yu Xiaogang.
In the side-story version, Yu Xiaogang's place in the story became awkward.
To show how exceptional our Yu Xiaogang was, the original gave him three love triangles: Flender, Liu Erlong, and Yu Xiaogang; Qian Xunji, Bibi Dong, and Yu Xiaogang; and Bibi Dong, Liu Erlong, and Yu Xiaogang. Somehow, two beautiful Soul Master prodigies fell in love with Yu Xiaogang because of his astonishing intellect.
But Yu Xiaogang's actions never lived up to what we were told about him. Everyone kept saying how brilliant he was. Bibi Dong said it. Tang San said it. Even Qian Renxue wanted to recruit him. People went so far as to claim that whoever won the Grandmaster would win the world.
Yet the plot never showed the Grandmaster's astonishing wisdom. If anything, Tang San's existence made the Grandmaster look bad.
At a minimum, a teacher should help his disciple obtain Soul Rings and protect him during the process. The Grandmaster couldn't even do that. Without Tang San's memories of his past life and his father Tang Hao, a Title Douluo, the pair would have died while pursuing the First Soul Ring.
Someone else helped Tang San obtain his Second Soul Ring; Yu Xiaogang could no longer keep up. Tang San's Third Soul Ring exceeded the age limit Yu Xiaogang had set. By the Fourth Soul Ring, it turned out Yu Xiaogang didn't even know about Soul Shock, something any Soul Master should have known. From then on, none of Tang San's achievements had anything to do with Yu Xiaogang.
Don't blame the Divine Realm for having no place for Yu Xiaogang. A master should guide his disciple first; the disciple repays him later. Instead, Yu Xiaogang rode Tang San's coattails the whole way. Tang San could have done without Yu Xiaogang as a teacher, but without Tang San, Yu Xiaogang would have been a failure for life.
So if Yu Xiaogang couldn't stand as a character, didn't Liu Erlong and Bibi Dong—the two women originally created to make Xiao Gang look exceptional—end up looking like fools?
Liu Erlong, what was wrong with you? You passed over Flender and insisted on Yu Xiaogang?
Bibi Dong, what was wrong with you? Instead of staying a Saintess, you insisted on running off with a level-29 Soul Master whose power involved farting?
That was why the original was so absurd!
But—
Even then, Yu Xiaogang retained one last shred of dignity. No matter how useless Xiao Gang was, his "wisdom" had at least won him the affection of two extraordinary women, and they loved him to the bone!
The side story tore that last shred of dignity to pieces.
Other characters attracted romantic interest through their own qualities—their looks, strength, intelligence, personality, wealth, power, and so on. However absurd the original was, its premise was that Yu Xiaogang's own "wisdom" attracted Bibi Dong and Liu Erlong!
Then the side story told us that the only reason two extraordinary women loved Yu Xiaogang so deeply was that the great Pope Qian had been pulling strings behind the scenes and playing matchmaker.
Yu Xiaogang hadn't made those two women fall madly in love through any quality of his own. Without Qian Xunji, he was nothing.
Didn't that make Yu Xiaogang a complete clown, without a single redeeming quality left?
That tells us something: even the original author didn't want to save Yu Xiaogang from being useless. The side story salvaged the portrayals of Bibi Dong and Qian Xunji, not Yu Xiaogang.
Before you continue