#and feng xin kinda just makes sense to me

[schrodingers-hoarding-problem]

the main thing keeping me from writing poly xianle quartet is i have no idea how to write xie lian

dont get me wrong, he is the character of all time and i love him. but hes just so complex and unique and different from me personally

[sunfiltersthroughwillowleaves]

had a tgcf and svsss crossover idea

ok so xie lian and hua cheng find this book (or whatever a book is in that universe) by an author named "airplane". wtf is an airplane anyways? so they start reading and its about a world a gajillion years in the future where there's paper that's made out of metal and it can change its image on will? and metal birds that carry people like swords except they're called airplanes and they're designed for the usage of many people at once??? why would the author name himself after that? chunks of metal with wheels that don't need horses???

"why dont they use cultivation" you ask, because there is none! so weird, right? anyways, they keep reading and there's so much stuff they call technology that's basically just magic. it's about an overpressured author who eats food that only needs water to be edible and sends his writing over an invisible spiderweb that covers the entire world. tbh, the author did a really bad job explaining all the "tech". overall a really stupid idea for a novel. xie lian honestly sorta likes it, but it's just wierd. the most odd part? these things keep coming out regularly. they're ridiculously long, and unlike other works from the same author, there's no sex scenes.

xie lian kinda likes it, and reads it every now and then cuddled up with hua cheng. hua cheng loves being next to xie lian, who giggles occasionally while reading, but hates the novel. somehow, shi qingxuan finds it, and shows it to ming yi, (shush leave me with my beefleaf) ming yi claims he doesn't like it but reads shi qingxuan's copy of that day's update every night. knows literally every detail, understands teh worldbuilding the best of anyone. feng xin and mu qing don't bother to read it, but they know a little about it.

one day, the next update is about someone who does something called a comment on his work. apparently, they do it a lot. and the character’s name is cucumber. who would name a character cucumber!? this author is weird. anyways the cucumber does a comment about a bunch of mean stuff critiquing the work and stuff. there are more than 3 pages of just mean commentings. the next page is about his metal paper. apparentlu, the metal paper can’t touch water, or else it poisons the water??? this makes no sense. not even ming yi can explain how it works. and then the main character touches the poison water? what a dumb character, remarks hua cheng.

main character wakes up in a cultivation world. apparentlhy main character was writing a story about this world? how dumb. hualien and beefleaf are crossing a road while reading this when a reckless cart driver is about to crash into them. hua cheng, obviously, obliterated the cart and its driver. problem solved! 

later that evening, when the four fall asleep, they don’t awaken (in those bodies, anyways). fengqing finds them, starts yelling their heads off, eventually brings their comatose bodies to ling wen, who shrugs and puts them in a drawer. 

meanwhile, hualien and beefleaf are reeling. they didn't get transferred into different bodies, but they are at a hospital. someone who looks vaguely like ling wen tells them that they were found half-dead under the seats of a funeral of some guy named shen jiu. weird. the nurse tries to charge them but, upon finding the only currency they have is merits, groans and lets them leave.  hua cheng rolls dice. nothing happens. 

xie lian asks where hua cheng’s butterflies are. hua cheng shrugs, but seems visibly on-edge. none of them are able to do cultivation when they try. people are looking at them weird. who the hell does cosplay in the middle of the street? some guy compliments xie lian and hua cheng on their tgcf cosplay. none of the four understand any of those words. someone asks to take a picture of them. take a picture? she pulls out a chunk of metal, holds it in front of their faces, presses next to them. oh, is it a mirror? but she clicks a white circle at the right of the rectangilar mirror, and it flashes bright white. hua cheng begins threatening her for daring to harm xie lian’s eyes, but xie lian apologetically gets him to back off.

the woman apologises and asks if they’re new to the area. shi qingxuan says yes, and she offers the four a place to stay. ming yi holds up his shovel, arguing that he could just dig a hole in the ground and sleep there. he has to be reminded that cultivation doesn’t work here.

back in the danmei world, airplane is no longer making money from his latest series, “an author without cultivation”! there were a few people buying it, but not anymore. they also tended to overpay wildly. airplane somehow pieces it together; (idk) ohhh they transferred to the human world. he convinces the system to let him and cucumber return to their world, but lbh protests. “where are you going shizun shizun dont leave me let me come with you shizun shizun come onnnnn shizunnnnnn” eventually they let him come too. mobei jun is ok with it as long as shang qinghua returns eventually. they transfer back to the human world, where cucumber finds himself in a coffin, at his own funeral. everyone is shocked when shen yuan sits up in his original body. people scream and shout and everyone is very happy, but cucumber barely remembers any of them. it’s been, like, twenty years. he can hardly remember his parents’ names. he smiles, laughs a little, rpetrends to know everyone, and then lbh arrives. through the window. pulls out an enormous sword. people then start screaming, because omg shen yuan’s enormous murder boyfriend is here. his parents scold him a little “why didn't you tell us you got a murder boyfriend” before getting yeeted into a wall. mmkay that’s happening now. luo bignhe and shen qingqiu spend their first day in the modern world in jail.

shang qinghua pays for their bail. apparently, they all arrived back to the modern world a day after sqq’s death, and a day before sqh’s. time travel? they don’t even know at this point. they manage to track down the other four by following a police report on a man in a red tunic and butterfly jewelry threatening a poor tgcf fan, witnesses report. (the woman wasnt even the one who ratted them out, it was the ugy who complimented them on their cosplays haha.) sqq and sqh share a look. that sounds like hua cheng, from tian guan ci fu! isn’t that a really popular danmei? lbh is just sitting next to them like a lost puppy, following them around, reminding shizun that he can tear anyone who dares question his authority to pieces. anyways they find the four. their conversation kinda goes like this.

sqq: hey are you xie lian?

hua cheng: who are you (the four are very concerned as they have never seen metal birds that make loud noises before)

lbh: how dare you threaten my husband

sqq and xie lian: binghe/san lang, calm down

sqq and xie lian make uncomfortable eye contact. woah. that guy also has an overprotective but lovable husband. neat. homosexuality.

xie lian:  yeah im xie lian, this is san lang, ming yi, and shi qingxuan

sqh: *looks at the other, nods* mmkay and are you familiar with the undiscovered gem of a series called “an author without cultivation”?

hua cheng and ming yi roll their eyes, the other two nod

sqx: yeah, what about it?

sqh: yeah, i’m the author! *waits for applause that never comes*

ming yi: so you know why we’re here?

sqq: well did you read it and hate it or somehting?

*lbh is still glaring at hua cheng. hua cheng is still glaring at lbh*

hua cheng: it was very easy to hate

sqh: *sqq laughs* shut up cucumber

ming yi: *snaps to attention* that was the name of one of your characters! peerless cucumber.

sqq: *laughing, elbows sqh* guess someone doesn’t hate it so much after all

*ming yi smacks him on the head with a shovel. lbh smacks ming yi on the head with his fist. they both pass out.*

sqx, catching ming yi: sorry about him, he can be a bit… (doesn’t finish)

sqh: yeah, no problem. my husband’s the same.

hua cheng: what?

sqh: *completely ignores him and moves on* okay so here’s what’s happening; i come from this world. i teleported to your world to do things accidentally after i died. then i stayed in your world and got a husband and started writing again and stuff.

xie lian: what things? and also you havent told us what you mena by we’re all gay. also why are giant metal birds your namesake?

sqh, swallowing: this is gonna take a while

they explain to the tgcf crew and stuff, and they end up grabbing an apartment. turns out, none of them know how to transfer htemselves back. also, they all appear to be human now. they appear the same, they’re all just human. sqh gets them a flat, and they all sleep on the floor.

ok i might update this later but who knows haha

[absolutesilly]

Tgcf fandom likes to talk about morals and such. We have folks who are the obvious clear good guys like xie lian and feng xin. And then we have hua cheng who is completely neutral. And then we get the morally grey like he Xuan and shi Wudu. And then we have mu Qing…. Which he’s not obliviously good like the other two xianle. But he’s never done an act that’s morally despicable… and he’s not like hua cheng either. What do you think of this topic? And what do you conclude on Mu Qing morality? lol sorry if this sounds like an exam question ☠️☠️☠️

hello there! :) i really appreciate the question!!

to start, i just wanna say that the tgcf fandom’s obsession with morals has always kinda driven me crazy, to be honest! in my opinion, flattening a whole bunch of very complicated characters into clear cut “good guys” and “bad guys” tends to feed into circular arguments about whose fave is the most morally pure and “right”—which isn’t very productive. having said that, though, mu qing’s specific morality really interests me, so let’s chat about it!

to me, mu qing is one of the most realistic characters in the novel, morality wise. he’s pragmatic and driven by self-preservation—which makes sense considering that he was born into extreme poverty with a sickly mother and an executed criminal for a father. he has to succeed and provide for himself and his mother, or they will starve. this is the reality he was born into! underlying all of his choices is the need to survive, at any cost.

but more than just being driven by self-preservation, he’s self-interested. mu qing is ambitious! he wants more for himself!! he isn’t satisfied just being someone’s servant, he wants to stand on his own as xie lian’s equal!!! (this is the crux of why they couldn’t actually be friends until the end of the novel… but that’s an essay for another day lmao)

anyway! mu qing protects himself first because he doesn’t trust anyone else to do it for him. he knows his worth and he leaves when he feels he isn’t being valued.

however, being self-interested does not mean that mu qing is selfish—though he’s often accused of it, both in-universe and out. i think many of the “selfish” accusations (from fans at least) come from the contrast between him and the rest of the xianle quartet, who are all nuts for self-sacrifice. feng xin is still struggling to break himself out of the “devoted bodyguard” mindset, 800 years after xie lian kicked him to the curb. hua cheng has LITERALLY died for his beloved, multiple times. and xie lian, of course, is Mr. Self-Sacrifice himself!

so naturally, a character like mu qing—who places a clear and high value on his own life—stands out a lot compared to them!

but it’s this very self-interest that makes his actions at the end of the novel SO powerful and so telling for who he is as a character. mu qing, THE self-preservation and self-interest guy, risks his life multiple times to save the people he cares about. he takes on a cursed shackle rather than betraying xie lian! he stays and tries to help everyone even though he fully believes that they all hate him and want him dead! he almost DIES just to buy xie lian a few more minutes of escape time! these are all acts of genuine love and selflessness.

of course, mu qing’s big self-sacrifice moments at the end aren’t the only time he does good!! he helps a lot throughout the novel—or at least attempts to help. many of his altruistic actions are either misconstrued by people’s assumptions about him/his own poor communication, or they blow up in his face. but he is very often trying to help!!

i think that’s the crux of mu qing for me: he’s trying. in spite of his cynicism, he KEEPS trying to be a good person! even though basically no one believes in him.

he’s not perfect. he’s mean and unpleasant (i say this with deep affection) and sometimes his pragmatism hurts the people he loves most. case in point: the 33 gods incident on the auspicious land. (though i could also write ANOTHER essay on how this was a complicated and unwinnable situation for both him and xl to be in, and ultimately i think his choice was sad but completely understandable… but i digress. essay for another time.)

anyway! if you’ve gotten this far! my overall verdict is: mu qing is complicated. he’s an imperfect person trying to be good, and i think that’s why i find him so interesting. he makes good choices and bad choices, as we all do!

i think a great many fans would do well to be a little more charitable in their assessment of him. when push comes to shove, many of us are more mu qing than we are xie lian. and there’s nothing wrong with that! ;)

[haruhar-u]

Hard Armour Does Not Make A Good Pillow

-2779 words

“Feng Xin’s brain told him he should panic, flail and kick his legs and start yelling at Mu Qing to put him the fuck down. Unfortunately for him, his heart had other plans”

beta read by @good-vs-evo

For @fengqingaction donations are open until July 5th please consider donating :)

prompted by Ladysara_writer on ao3

—Basically Feng Xin has a migraine and Mu Qing takes care of him—

“Currently mount Tonglu is stable,” some random middle court civil god from the palace of Ling Wen, that’s Feng Xin’s guess as their blue robes matches Ling Wen as if she was their fucking idol or something,  practically droned on; they leaned over a piece of paper as they wrote on it at the head of the table. The other officials were all pretty much craning their necks to get a look at the paper. Feng Xin, on the other hand,  desperately tried to block out the constant droning of their voice. It was akin to a mosquito flying near your face and especially buzzing around your ears yet you can’t swat them away no matter how hard you try. 

“…the mortals are doing well as of now…Lord Windmaster is on his way to ascending again...now onto finances,” they continued as Feng Xin stifled a groan. The light streaming through the wide windows felt like it was going to practically burn out his eyes. Actually, Feng Xin wouldn’t be surprised if it was slowly burning his brain through his eyes. That’d make a lot of sense considering how he felt right now. 

The civil god started stating random amounts of merits in numbers so large Feng Xin didn’t want to process even thinking about them right now. He buried his face into his hands which were resting on the table in front of him, allowing the soothing darkness to engulf him…Well it wasn’t as dark as Feng Xin would like but it was slightly better than before. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world and hard armour is not a good pillow. He felt like he was heaven’s biggest idiot for thinking he’d be able to endure what started out as a dull ache for the entire hour the meeting would run for. And, dull ache? Nah, that became an intense throbbing pain clawing at his head and Feng Xin swore he felt bile come up.

Feng Xin tightly shut his eyes; if he has to stay here for another 45 minutes, might as well wallow in misery while he’s at it! The droning of the civil god got worse and their voice went from a buzz in Feng Xin’s ear to what sounded like the long nails of a ghost empress scratching at metal right next to his ears. Why couldn’t his state of misery have waited until after the meeting? Actually, why couldn’t it have stopped right this second? That’d be pretty ideal, if Feng Xin wasn’t to lie. He’ll just ask another heavenly official, probably Xie Lian, –he wouldn't mind for sure–what happened at the meeting. If he were to ask Mu Qing, he can see the eyeroll coming from where he is now.

He felt a light tap on one of his shoulders. Reluctantly he turned his head to the side and opened a single eye, slightly wincing at the light. 

          “You look worse than usual.” It was Mu Qing who tapped him. Was that a hint of concern in his hushed tone and facial expression? No, why would Mu Qing be concerned about him? 

      “Fuck off.” That just kinda came out weakly without Feng Xin even thinking about it. Force of habit, he supposed. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mu Qing roll his eyes at him. Typical. “Obviously you’re well enough to curse me out.”

“..’m fine” Feng Xin mumbled, turning his head back to how it was before Mu Qing came and decided he must disturb the peace by bothering him.

“No, you’re not.” 

“I am”

            “I don’t believe you.”

“I said I’m fucking fine.” “Sure.” Mu Qing retorts. “I’ll believe you when you sit up and pay attention.” 

Why did Mu Qing have to be so fucking fustrating? Feng Xin didn’t understand it! Why couldn’t Mu Qing just leave Feng Xin to suffer alone and in peace exactly how he wanted to in the first place. 

Feng Xin let out a sigh and forced himself to sit up straight. The bright lights from Mount Taicang poured burned into his head from the windows when he opened his eyes causing his head to feel like it was about to split open leaving only one martial god of the south. He couldn’t close his eyes. There was no way in the ghost realm he’d even think about looking weak in front of his greeted rival!

“You look…like you’re about to throw up all over the table,” Mu Qing comments in a whisper just loud enough for Feng Xin to just barely hear him. 

“I’m fine.” Was that really all Feng Xin could say? He was seriously starting to think that was all he knew how to say at this point! At this point if this headache kills him, ‘I’m fine -tremendous masculinity’ is going to be the thing engraved onto his grave! That fucker Mu Qing would make sure of it. 

Mu Qing rolled his eyes again. Then he did what Feng Xin would never imagine in a million years. He wrapped one of his arms under Feng Xin’s knees and the other under his armpits then lifted him up. Which unfortunately caused the judgemental gazes of all the heavenly officials in the room to land on the two of them.

Feng Xin’s brain told him he should panic, flail and kick his legs and start yelling at Mu Qing to put him the fuck down. Unfortunately for him, his heart had other plans as it started to beat uncontrollably fast. The heart wants what it wants and the heart wants him to lean against Mu Qing’s chest. He didn’t have the strength to fight it and then he buried his face against the silk of Mu Qing’s outer robe and closed his eyes once more. 

“General Xuan Zhen, General Nan Yang, just where do you think you’re going? And Xuan Zhen, why are you carrying Nan Yang??” the middle court official asked. Either Feng Xin didn’t catch what was said after or Mu Qing just straight up ignored them.

He felt the air get colder as Mu Qing stepped out into fresh air. There was a slight breeze that hit Feng Xin’s face. The breeze felt surprisingly soothing, like a mother’s touch, but cold. The air was definitely way less stuffy than in the temple, so that’s definitely a plus.

Mu Qing didn’t say anything as he walked, which Feng Xin deeply appreciated. He definitely thought the bastard would immediately start scolding him or use this as a chance to prove he’s better somehow. Feng Xin isn’t really sure how. But Mu Qing’s silence was a welcome change compared to the constantly grating voice of the junior official from Ling Wen palace. Feng Xin wishes banishment upon them for ...He'll get back to you on that. 

They must’ve gotten back to the palace because although Feng Xin’s face was still buried into Mu Qing’s chest the air surrounding them got slightly warmer and the breeze completely went away. Wait…Feng Xin’s face was still against Mu Qing’s chest? Well, a world of teasing is in for him once he gets better. He should probably think of bracing for the impact of Mu Qing’s words and start thinking of comebacks, you know? 

At this point, Feng Xin didn’t know where Mu Qing was taking him; in fact, he didn’t even know which palace he was even in! Did Mu Qing take him to his own palace or did he go to Feng Xin’s palace? Then a door slowly creaked open as Mu Qing supported Feng Xin’s body weight with one arm as the other was opening the door. Feng Xin was laid upon the bed. The bed felt soft and the blankets on top were completely messy and unmade and he could feel pillows thrown about all around him. This bed felt familiar. It felt like home. Oh wait, maybe that’s because it was home. Yeah that’d be a good guess. 

Mu Qing clicked his tongue. “You can’t even make your own bed in the morning? Seriously?” Feng Xin desperately hopes that’s a rhetorical question as he didn’t feel like answering that. Mu Qing then lets out a sigh, but it’s not one of those annoyed kind of sighs but it’s one of those exasperated-affectionate kind of sighs. “Do you have any rags anywhere?”

“In the bathhouse,” Feng Xin answered. Honestly, he wasn’t 100% sure if there even were any in the bathhouse. That was just the place where there would most likely be a random cloth laying about. Knowing Feng Xin’s organization skills, it’s definitely on the floor. He just has to trust that Mu Qing will be able to find it. He probably will. If Mu Qing wasn’t a martial god, he’d definitely be a civil god of organizing or some shit like that. 

Mu Qing then closes the door to leave Feng Xin with only the sounds of his own thoughts and breathing. Even that was a bit too loud at the moment. At least it wasn’t as bad as the heavenly official meeting. That literally felt like that time Hua Cheng and Xie Lian invited everyone to the ghost realm for dinner…it definitely wasn’t pretty and Feng Xin wondered if what was being served was actually edible. The ghosts were also incredibly noisy. Like a whole bunch of little tiny children in a martial school learning how to learn a sword for the first time or some shit. Like congratulations kids  now please shut up. Or in Feng Xin’s case, congratulations we are in a shit load of debt from rebuilding everything now shut up!

Mu Qing came back quite quickly. A lot quicker than Feng Xin thought he would, considering the state of his bathhouse. Feng Xin blinked open his eyes to see Mu Qing folding a cloth. His dark hair, which was held back in a half ponytail, was slightly messy with the occasional fly-away strands poking out. His robes were also a bit out of place, the outer portion was pulled slightly down, Feng Xin could only assume it was him who caused it, revealing a bit of his beige inner robes. It was...in the dimly lit room…No. There’s no fucking way Feng Xin is finding a man with messy hair and messed up clothes attractive. Especially if said man is Mu Qing. 

Mu Qing finished refolding the cloth in a rectangle shape and lay it gently onto Feng Xin’s forehead. The cool feeling of the damp cloth felt nice on his skin, it didn’t immediately soothe his headache but it felt good nonetheless. Then Mu Qing softly helped Feng Xin undo his top knot, letting his hair flow down to just under his shoulder blades. Having his hair down felt way nicer than laying on a permanent bump on his head due to the way his hair was styled. 

“I brought a bucket and water  from the bathhouse, just in case,”  Mu Qing states, putting the bucket and water down by Feng Xin’s bedside. Nope, there’s no way in the ghost realm he’d need to use the bucket in front of Mu Qing. There was definitely no way he’d give his biggest rival blackmail! Mu Qing seeing Feng Xin in pain like this was already enough, if he were to throw up in front of him it’d be ten times worse.

But if Mu Qing really was his biggest rival ever, then why does the mere thought of him taking care of him ever so gently and attentively cause his heart to feel like it was about to beat out of his chest? Or why does it cause his cheeks to go slightly pink. This is all too weird for Feng Xin! He hates Mu Qing right? Right??? And Mu Qing hates him back! But if he truly hated him back, why is he taking care of him like this! Why does he care?

Mu Qing leaves the room again, slowly closing the door behind him. Feng Xin doesn’t know why he didn’t want him to leave. He desired Mu Qing to stay and sit in serene silence with him the way he once did Jian Lan back in the day… What the fuck???

Mu Qing came back to check on him randomly throughout the day. He was a natural caretaker. It was odd. Whenever Feng Xin needed anything, it would be around the time Mu Qing came in to check on him. Mu Qing didn’t say anything when Feng Xin had no choice but to use the bucket he brought. Mu Qing only rolled his eyes, picked up the bucket and took it somewhere else. He probably cleaned it out and put the same bucket back. That or Mu Qing has found an endless supply of the same buckets somewhere. 

Still, this feeling Feng Xin had towards him. It was just (regrettably) gratitude for having at least someone to take care of him this time, right? There’s no way this is love! Feng Xin shudders at the thought of him and Mu Qing being anywhere near as sappy as Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. Gross. 

Mu Qing came in to check in on him one more time before Feng Xin fell asleep that night. He offered to run Feng Xin a bath or help him out of his armour. This was really wracking Feng Xin’s brain in more than one way. Does Mu Qing think he’s back in Xianle and that Feng Xin is still Xie Lian because the way he’s taking care of him is so…so soft, gentle and caring. Like a loving person. Ha! Someone loving Feng Xin, to him that’s funny. Who would even love someone like him? And to Feng Xin, Mu Qing wasn’t a loving person. At all. 

But Mu Qing was so tender when he was around Feng Xin. He was so caring when he added sugar to the bitter tasting pain killing herbs to make it taste better. He was even more tender when he brushed Feng Xin’s hair for me. And he was so soft when made sure that the cold cloth —which alternated locations between his neck and forehead— was replaced whenever it heated up. Feng Xin definitely didn’t expect this.

At the crack of dawn, Feng Xin felt way better than he did yesterday. Of course, it didn’t completely disappear, but what was once a throbbing pain was now a dull ache that he could definitely manage on his own. His eyes didn’t practically start screaming at him the moment light was let in too, which was definitely a plus. He stretched his arms, which felt like he was ascending once more or something, because he was basically stiffer than that giant statue Xie Lian had that one time. At least that thing could actually move! Mu Qing helped him into the bath and that was about it. 

There was something weird about the palace though…It was a lot neater than Feng Xin left it. And did Mu Qing fucking tuck him in?! Everything that used to be scattered all over the floor was now neatly put away in places where logically you’d think you’d be able to find them. Everything down to his bathhouse was neatly organized. Now this was weird. Mu Qing helping him yesterday and willingly spending the day with him was already odd. Not even with him actually considering he spent the whole day playing doctor. He even went the extra mile to grab him some painkillers which did wonders and now his palace is neatly organized??? What the actual fuck. 

Placed on a table in the corner of the bathhouse was a note on a crumpled piece of paper. Feng Xin reluctantly picked up the piece of paper and did his best to straighten it by rubbing it against the table way more times than he actually needed to and almost ripped it. It read:

Feng Xin, your house was a literal nightmare to get around. Everything was everywhere and I literally couldn’t find anything. I have taken the honour of being the one to organize your welcome. I just wanted to add that taking care of you and rescuing you from that meeting made me realize I l-

-Mu Qing

After the “I l-“ the rest of the letter was scribbled and crossed out repeatedly like Mu Qing desperately didn’t want Feng Xin to read what he wrote. This left Feng Xin to only question what it was Mu Qing could possibly  have written. …I l- huh? I loathe you. Absolute loathing was all they felt for each other and that’s that! 

reblogs appreciated! Also cross posted on Ao3

[boonsmoon]

Could you do Mu Qing x fem!reader? Where ready is a sister of Feng Xin. Mu Qing and reader never get a long until the two where sent on a mission together. The reader gets injured and Mu Qing and the reader get stuck in some room since the enemy kinda kidnaped them. You can add something yourself if you want but yeahhh

Horrendously late timing, I know I lost motivation to write and school started up again

Request Chungus ML Heaven Official's Blessing ML Mu Qing x f!reader Genres: Oneshot|Fluff|Platonic

Foundation of Love (1)

Coming from a life without much luck, you were at least blessed enough to ascend to heaven like your elder brother, though your ascension was much later than his. You did consider yourself lucky when you two were able to work together under Xie Lian.

However, the cycle must always come full circle, that includes luck. Feng Xin and yourself had the displeasure of working alongside Mu Qing. This man was too harsh with his words, he must have a massive ego to talk such a way while working under another!

It was this simple perception that garnered dislike towards your fellow subordinate and my did it last a long time. While very open about how you felt, the two of you at least had the sense to leave your rivalry outside the presence of heaven officials.

None of this stopped Xie Lian from catching on; however, as he was more attentive than the other gods you interacted with. Due to being around y'all often and seeing you avoid Mu Qing like the plague, Xie Lian thought the best way to help the two of you get along was sticking you together on an easy mission.

You were hesitant at first, Feng Xin and Mu Qing are more combat abled than you, they would be a better pick for the mission.

"It's because you aren't as skilled you need to join Mu Qing!" Xie Lian said, "this mission requires both balance of brain and brawn. I'm assigning you as the thinker this time." He sounded a bit too enthusiastic for this mission.

Not wanting to inconvenience the god further, you accepted the dreaded mission. Leaving, the both of you couldn't have looked more dutiful, but the moment you were far enough away it was a barrage of insults.

"Accepting a mission with you is the same as going alone," Mu Qing said, looking at you condescendingly. "You should give up and go back."

As much as you wanted to give up, you can't let him win. You're basically doing what he wants if you don't follow through! And this determination against him showed clearly, "obviously Xie Lian doesn't trust you enough if he had to ask me to babysit you."

And this continued... Until you got to the hot spot of recent ghost attacks. It was dusk already, so your mission would be starting soon, obviously not in your favor.

"It would make more sense to follow the ghost's patterns for tonight and attack tomorrow," you tried to argue, "then we know what we're up against!"

Mu Qing; however, wouldn't listen one bit, "are you telling me my skills aren't good enough? I actually want this mission to end sometime soon."

There was no point in arguing, as that would just make getting the mission done harder. So instead you both decided to split up, for each others sanity.

This turned out to be the worse plan ever! Almost 5 minutes in and already a ghost was chasing around the area. Just your luck, to get stuck on a mission with Mu Qing and wander without his protection!

With enough time passing you assumed your screams of terror would alert Mu Qing, because you just couldn't keep up this marathon anymore. It was most unfortunate when you tripped over a rock and basically had the ghost tackle you.

Lightly scratched from the ground you tried to move, but not before the ghost could get a few cuts in. The utter inconvenience of these wounds ended up hindering your pace.

You ran inside what looked like shelter to hide from the ghost, which seemingly worked because it had disappeared for a few minutes. Going further inside you realized this place may be bigger than it appeared.

Good things can't last forever though, as the ghost came sprinting back to your location, and you had to bolt it. But a few doors down, there he was, your knight in not such shining armor walking out of a room.

Upon noticing your predicament he initiated battle with the ghost, though futile as Mu Qing kept getting pushed back. Realizing this Sisyphus battle, the most sensible thing he thought to do was carry you and run.

Yes, he picked you up like a football and started running around the building, looking for somewhere to hide. Maybe an exist if you were lucky. What neither of you realized is no matter how many turns you took, how far you walked, you only ended up deeper in the building.

Noticing the ghost had disappeared, Mu Qing set you down in a random room. And thus your adrenaline died down, bringing argument to ensue.

"What was that for!? I'm not an item to be lugged around!" You furiously said. Only to be answered by an equally angered Mu Qing, "well there's not much I can do when I'm stuck fighting a ghost and trying protect you at the same time!"

You decided to take this moment to recon, think of a strategy to eliminate the ghost and escape this place. It was only after hours when the sun shone through that you noticed both of you have been stuck in here all night.

"I know we don't see eye to eye very much," you started, "but this clearly is more than we can handle, and required us to work together." Your statement was followed by a scoff.

After teamwork and piecing together clues, you both successfully found your way outside. Only to be met with Xie Lian and Feng Xin.

Both of you were confused, you only left for a day. "I can take care of things from here," Xie Lian spoke. But you and Mu Qing took that as him doubting your skills.

"We've been gone for one measly day, you can't possibly think I am in need of that much help?" Mu Qing said with you jumping in, "I second that! We just need one more day."

Xie Lian went after the ghost, which left Feng Xin to tell you what happened in the past day... Or days that is.

"Basically, the ghost was actually difficult, and we've been gone for 4 days?" You questioned, looking pale.

"Yeah... We came here to get things fixed," Feng Xin said, giving you a thumbs up.

Absolutely horrible luck you have indeed, but at least you learned to tolerate Mu Qing, and even understand him on a certain level. Xie Lian can proudly say this is the start of something new between the two of you.

i intended on this being romantic but instead it appears i went on a side quest

2 parts? enemies to friends to lovers? who knows

anyways as i said at the beginning, school started back up, so slow reqs

Part 2

[yapwithsyd]

The Book That Broke Me | Heaven Official's Blessing

Coming into this volume, I received numerous comments wishing me luck… so that left me feeling great starting up my 340-something pages of Heaven Official’s Blessing book six. After finishing this volume, I can easily agree, this is one of the most heart wrenching entries in this series.

Barely getting into the book had me at the edge of my seat. Trekking up the mountain only to be crushed by an avalanche cause by Xie Lian’s bumbling former servants and awaken in a strange cave. Hua Cheng was acting so weird in this entire section, for a while, I worried that it wasn’t actually him. A lot of creepiness happens in these chapters and I was feeling like Hua Cheng was showing that he was actually this super crazy psycho stalker this whole time… take the thousands of statues and wall paintings as you will. The tension that was built up when Feng Xin and Mu Qing were dragging Xie Lian throughout the cave was so good. The feeling that Hua Cheng was going to catch them at any moment had me reading so fast.

A lot came out while inside the cave. Hua Cheng shockingly has been following Xie Lian for hundreds of years. The two junior officials that have been joining Xie Lian are actually Feng Xin and Mu Qing - I always thought that their actions reflected the older two’s and welp, this certainly explains why. And White No-Face is trying to make it to the kiln to increase their depleted power. With all the not-so-great things surfacing, we at least got the breakthrough with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian admitting they have feelings for each other!

Once we get to the kiln, and get a surprise first actual kiss, they jump hand in hand into the kiln. When Xie Lian ends up in the kiln without Hua Cheng and White No-Face standing in front of him, I was ready for an epic fight! Instead, I got poor Xie Lian getting re-traumatized by that mask before the start of arc 4!

Once again, we get flashbacks. This one is to right after the kingdom of Xianle has burned, Xie Lian is a banished god, and the group is on the run. Here is where all the deep-seated trauma comes in. This arc is rough and evokes a lot of feelings.

I felt even more annoyance towards the (former) king. As he gets more and more sick, he keeps silent. It’s not until he is coughing up blood that his wife says something and begs her son to get medicine so he doesn’t die! This annoyed me because instead of catching this early, he waits until a critical point and adds to much stress to Xie Lain and the others. At that point I was kinda hoping he would just die and that stress would be done with. He was so ungrateful for all Xie Lian was doing for them so I didn’t think he deserved Xie Lian pushing himself past his own morals in order to try and get his medicine.

Mu Qing leaving the group was rough to read. I knew he would leave eventually, but to have it be so abrupt was just a huge blow. The is only made worse by seeing him re-appear at the mountain and having to be the one to force Xie Lian off the mountain. The mountain seen had my mind swirling. When he found it and was finally seeing some sense of happiness for the first time in forever, that whole herd of Heavenly Officials think they can throw him out because they want the mountain instead. They were scared of him being stronger than them, I was trilled when Xie Lian destroyed all these martial gods with a stick! Then Mu Qing has to come around and ruin everything!

White No-Face picks a great time to show up, but at least we get to see that cute little ghost fire again, it’s just so cute how he tries to burn so bright for Xie Lian. The devotion is there! Even enough to transform him into a wrath just to protect Xie Lian. The temple scene single handedly broke me. Gathering a group of people to infect with a disease with only one cure, a cure that involves killing someone, so they will stab Xie Lian was possibly the most cruel thing I have seen. Breaking Xie Lian’s trust in people, proving that if pushed far enough, people will always do what they need to survive. My only question is, Xie Lian cannot die, so how can the stabbings count as a kill? I get that they are in a vital point and any normal mortal would die from it, but not Xie Lian.

This starts the downfall of his relationship with Feng Xin after White No-Face starts following him everywhere. Watching Xie Lian fall apart was hard. I hated watching him push Feng Xin away because of his fear of the friend leaving him first. I knew the dream that start was gonna come back in a more real way… Reading breakdown after breakdown mentally wore me down. After so many set backs and loses, waking up to find his parents bodies and him trying to hang himself was by far the second hardest scene to get through. Finding out this was how Rouye was made, yet is such a sweet and gentle spiritual weapon made me appreciate Rouye more.

Here we get a new Hua Cheng form with Wuming. The young solider dressed in black who will obey every order (for the most part) Xie Lian gives him. Those two go on their adventures to release the spirits of Human Face Disease. Seeing that Wuming was so dedicated to Xie Lian that he threw himself to the plague and destroyed himself in order to save Xie Lian. Proving that he will indeed die for his God. I need to know how strong his devotion for Xie Lian is because how can he, as a wrath, take out Human Face Disease?

The pain of seeing his last follower dying for him took a toll on him and Xie Lian begging to be banished in the same breath that Jun Wu welcomes him back to the Heavens proves that all this trauma is still dragging him down. I will say, from the very beginning of this series, I wanted to know the story behind the speed run of Xie Lian’s second banishment, and boy was I not disappointed in Xie Lian and Jun Wu taking this opportunity to fight each other once more.

Ending with Xie Lian’s terrible luck on full display and seeing the red flower and just seeming to know who it symbolizes was the perfect ending.

[1unpaid-intern]

Ok so I'm kinda new to tumblr, but I just can't get this fanfic idea out of my head. So since I'll probably never write this/ lose motivation half way through, I might as well share it.

Soooo I've come across a really good ghost/calamity xie lian AU fic (Dark Sword, White Flower by Luna04 on ao3 if anyone's interested) and I've come up with my own take on that premise, because it's just so intriguing.

(English is not my first language, so sorry for any mistakes)

Also spoilers for tgcf (obviously)!

Almost all fics I've read make it so Xie Lian dies in the coffin Lang Qianqiu put him in, but even though that'd be pretty cruel (and would therefore make sense in universe xD) I just don't buy it. Jun Wu specifically wanted to make life as painfull as possible for him both psycologically and physically. Xie Lian getting stabed through the heart for decades would be a dream come true, so he definetly wouldn't let him die. Because if you ask me, he definetly knew. As white no-face he was stalking XL constantly and you're telling me he just stopped after his second banishment? XL was still suffering, since his luck got sealed away, so you bet that he's been watching him day after day while eating popcorn and going like: serves you right little sh*t (because we all know he's petty like that).

Instead I'd have XL die trying to stop the human face disease from raining down on Yong'an. In the original Wu Ming sacrifices himself, but what if no-face stops him by scattering his soul. XL then makes the ultimate sacrifice and even though all those resentfull spirits should kill him no matter what, in order to make it a little bit more poetic let's say that right before he gets hit, XL ascends for the second time since he regained his morals and tries to make up for it. (In the process he also breaks his shakle. And I know that you're supposed to also be imortal as a god, but Shi Wudu got killed by having his head ripped off and I just have this head canon that XL would be fine after that because JW just won't let him die.)

Now the "problem" that arises with this premis instead of the coffin-death is that JW absolutly knows about XLs death. If he lets the rest of heaven know that, it'd eventually reach Hua Cheng. Aaand oh booooyyyy. If he found out that his god not only died, but none of the other gods, not even the emperor himself, prevented it by helping him, the temples of those 33 gods wouldn't be the only thing on fire. Because think about it, the reason HC keeps on living is XL, but if he thinks he's gone, then the only thing that'd keep him going is revenge. HCs end goal would then be to become strong enough to even kill JW.

But I can also see this playing out differently. We know JW wants XL to follow in his foot steps and become a calamity, therefore needing to become a ghost (as he says when they're both trapped in the Kiln). So he'd definetly consider the posibility of XL becoming a ghost. Considering the guy has a sword for everything (looking at you virginity detecting sword) I could imagine that he also has one that can tell if somebody's soul is still wandering around even though they're dead. Obviously JW would want to find him and turn him into a calamity. But if he a) tells the other gods that XL is a ghost then atleast Feng Xin and Mu Qing would also be looking for him or b) only tells them that he died then somebody might get the idea to use the aforementioned sword and leading us back to a). So the most logical thing would be for JW to just lie about XL getting banished a second time (similar to how it originally went down).

While I like both scenarios, I'm kinda leaning towards the second one with JW lying, because as soon as XL ascendes for the third time he's gonna be hella confused why nobody is freaking out about him showing up in heaven, followed up by him becoming suspicious of JW.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot was what's special about XL as a ghost king, what differentiates him from the others. HC got his red robs, silver jewelry, blood rain, wraith butterflies, E-Ming and power over luck. He Xuan has his black robes, great acting skills (seriously give this man an oscar), never ending hunger, skeletton fish and power over the seas. Qi Rong (while only having the title of a calamity and not actually being a ghost king) has his green robes, green fire locks and his habit of trying to imitate the other calamities (e.g. hanging corpses & eating people). Bai Wuxiang has his simple white burial robs, the iconic half-crying half-smiling mask, a spirit calling cloth flag, Fangxin aka Zhu Xin, manipulation and the power of the human face disease. Things I've seen a lot in other fics and that I completly agree on are: XL can turn his nails into long claws (similar to Lady Dimitrescu I'd imagine), he doesn't want to be found so he shape shifts a lot and he helps out the common people, especially children and mothers (since trying to help others and making up for his past mistakes is basically all that keeps him going). While these characteristics are great, they aren't enough to make him stand out yet. One idea I'm really proud of is to make XL a puppet master. Because correct me if I'm wrong, but the only "ghost typs" we ever were introduced to were sentient weapons, possed objects, humanoid ghosts, ghost animals, water ghouls and puppet masters. And just imagine XL using threads and puppets to fight in addition to Ruoye. Like, imagine him fighting similar to Sasori from Naruto, the Spider Demons from Demon Slayer or ErrorSans from the Undertale AUs. I also think he should stick with the burial cloths he was wearing as white no-face (maybe with some blood on them to make it more creepy) but obviously adding his signitur bambu hat with some flowy long vails.

I wouldn't change to much about he whole XL posing as the Yong'an goushi backstory. I would only have it so Lang Qianqiu finds out that his goushi was actually a ghost king and XL fleeing so he isn't stuck in a coffin for decades. That way when LQQ finds out about XL being his goushi, it also serves as the big reveal.

I'm not so sure what to do with the Banyue kingdom backstory though. I would like for XL to take Ban Yue as his little adoptive daughter, but if he went back after the kingdom was destroyed, then woudn't he take care of Kemo and the other ghost soliders right there? That would lead to Little Pei never luring people in, therefore erasing the entire Banyue arc and I don't know how to feel about that. Yes, not much would change, were it to play out, but that's the first time XL meets the "earth" and wind master. Also JW led them to Banyue pass (and also to the ghost bride) in order to damage Pei Mings reputation, so he'd lose believers and therefore would be easier to beat later on and that's kinda important. Not to forget he used a puppet for that and with XL as a puppet master he'd definetly be able to get more info out of it, leading to raising his suspicions again.

Aaaaand that are all the ideas I have so far, also my fingers hurt from typing.

Maybe I'll continue this some day, since I probably won't stop obsessing over this AU any time soon. (Also if you know similar fics please let me know, I feel so starved rn)

[monstersqueen]

on a different wavelength ! thinking about mxtx's books !

obviously given how the love interests have waited longer and longer for the protag, i think the next one is going to have to wait until the universe dies and starts again.

but i was thinking of the evolution of the antipathy of the love interest towards the other loved ones of the protag, especially those they can see as having wronged the protag, and it threw me back into xianle-trio-is-3zuns-slightly-to-the-left

so who was 3zuns in svss? (was there a 3zun equivalent in svss??) - well mu qing is jgy next iteration, and honestly the previous iteration is obviously shen jiu. you don't even have to think twice about it. so, another point of the triangle is yqy. he could combine the two roles ! but if we're looking for dude-whose-righteousness-doesn't-understand-the-former-gutter-rat's-morality, it's. liu qingge. which was anyway the top candidate for the third point, i just wasn't sure he truly fitted. but given the evolution of shen jiu didn't kill lqg but everyone though he did to jgy ABSOLUTELY killed nmj, that does make sense

the xianle iteration closest equivalent is mu qing knocking out feng xin

...kinda feel like hunting down some fengqing fics now. good ship. lots of content. will distract me from my rarepair current obsession long enough to go to bed easily tonight.

[not-joan-of-arc]

heaven official's blessing (pt. 2)

(finished reading on April 1 2022)

my unedited annotations for books four and five (SPOILERS AHEAD):

BOOK FOUR

been too busy to read for the past few days but I'm super excited to dive back into this - that being said, I'm still scared of this book ending

and so we return to the past!!

okay so Xie Lian's already been banished? ngl I was kind of hoping to see the actual banishment because I'm still confused as to why exactly he was banished??

also it's weird because the Xie Lian of the past is vastly different from present him but you can also very clearly see how he became the way he is today

ah yes now we know exactly where Xie Lian's poison-cooking-specialty originates from lol

okay Mu Qing is being kind of a dick in leaving Xie Lian but also he's got a valid point, and I kinda sympathise with him?

oh fuck me it's Hua Cheng?? I knew he would be in this book somehow!!

“I want to protect them.” - no but this is his unfulfilled wish that ties him to the mortal realm?? like he just wants to protect Xie Lian, that's so pure and wow I'm actually going to start crying now

I hope one day to find someone who loves me as much as Hua Cheng loves Xie Lian, even if its just in a platonic way

‘“If you remain forcibly, you won’t be able to rest in peace,” Xie Lian said.

The nameless ghost didn’t seem to care. “I pray to never rest in peace.”’

no but this whole scene with Xie Lian and little ghost Hua Cheng is like the foundation of their current relationship - Hua Cheng protecting Xie Lian without ever speaking a word to him of it, suffering to keep his heart to himself

so Hua Cheng died in the war, that makes sense

wait what?? Xie Lian actually cooked something edible?? maybe his cooking skills are a plot device after all

oh so this is when Feng Xin gets all wifed up

no but you really feel the second-hand embarassment when Xie Lian is caught trying to rob someone, like he's really fallen from that gracious and honorable Crown Prince of the past

yo someone help this boy, he is literally having multiple panic attacks and has very severe PTSD and also probably depression, like boy needs some therapy stat

but tbf, that's all characters in every mxtx adaptation rip

okay but ghost fire Hua Cheng is genuinely adorable

oh so these are the thirty-three heavenly officials Hua Cheng becomes famous for killing - of course his reason for doing so was Xie Lian! I should have realised that sooner considering everything Hua Cheng does is for Xie Lian

“But, this hand had reached out too late.”

I think White No-Face's obsession with Xie Lian is because he is the Crown Prince of Wuyong who suffered a terrible fate and he wants Xie Lian to suffer likewise and join him so he won't be alone anymore

the one instance where Feng Xin and Mu Qing are actually getting along and it's Xie Lian who drives them apart, how ironic - I keep trying to make myself like Mu Qing and like, I understand why he does what he does but I still don't like him - Feng Xin though is my boi

I'm beginning to understand why book four is the most tragic and hardest-to-read section in the whole book

no but it makes sense?? killing makes you immune to the human face disease

oh fuck no I think I know what's about to happen

Xie Lian...what are they doing to you

fuck me but he is without a doubt the character with the most tragic backstory ever to exist

SOMEBODY FUCKING SAVE HIM

how painful this must be for Hua Cheng too seeing the love of his life bear so much pain and be unable to do anything about it

Xie Lian you need to tell Feng Xin what happened to you or you're going to lose him too

“It’s not like I’m a god, can’t I be angry? Can’t I hate?”

I understand why Feng Xin leaves but also fuck you Feng Xin! can't you see how much torment your best friend is in? can't you see that he's too broken to be left alone

wait the King and Queen have actually hanged themselves?

no okay this is too fucking much don't y'all leave Xie Lian alone like this, he doesn't deserve to be tormented like thus, he doesn't deserve any of this

Ruoye!! and now I understand what Xie Lian meant when he talked about forging his spiritual device with Pei Ming - I knew it would be tragic but never this tragic

he's on the verge of becoming the white-faced calamity isn't he?

Hua Cheng to the rescue!! and now I understand all the fan art of Hua Cheng in a smiling face mask

or maybe not Hua Cheng to the rescue? curiouser and curiouser

Xie Lian has definitely got something up his sleeve as always but it still hurts to watch him be so broken and in pain

and now we have the story behind the bamboo hat

Hua Cheng!!

ahh why do they both go through so much pain?? and because they're soulmates they feel each other's pain too - my heart -

I read a post that said all that happens to Xie Lian makes him “desensitised” to everything and that's exactly what it is - he bears so much pain and suffering and humiliation in such a short span of time that eight hundred years later present day Xie Lian just does not give a fuck about anything anymore, like he's reached the lowest it is posible to ever go and can go no lower and like my heart is in pieces for him but at the same time he's such a fucking icon

the truth behind his second banishment

and thus we have present day Xie Lian in all his adorableness, except now we know his full story

the only big mystery left now is his third ascension I think

now onto book five as we return to Mount Tongl'u

BOOK FIVE

I don't this even needs to be said but I loathe White No-Face with every inch of my being okay

no but its actually hilarious that Hua Cheng carved a inhumanly big statue of Xie Lian out of a literal mountain, like my man is whipped

the real question is why is Hua Cheng a ghost king and not a world-famous artist and sculptor?? like he should have his own museum and not be running the ghost version of las vegas lol

it's also hilarious how though all the gods supposedly find Xie Lian strange they're all still willing to do whatever he says, like Quan Yizhen and even Pei Ming

haha I knew Pei Ming totally ships it

its only been like a few hours since Hua Cheng and Xie Lian properly kissed with no pretensions (and they haven't even properly confessed their love yet - though they don't really need to to be honest lol) but I'm absolutely living for these casual displays of love, like Hua Cheng giving Xie Lian a forehead kiss makes me feel so warm and happy

I was wondering when Shi Quingxan would show up again - ngl, was not expecting this reunion though

absolutely love the fact that Xie Lian can quite easily kiss Hua Cheng in front of everyone when it's a high-stakes situation but gets flustered by kissing his cheek when they're completely alone, Xie Lian is just too adorable

Jun Wu is White No-Face?? what the fuck....

I thought Jun Wu was kind of sus but not to this extent

no I don't want Yin Yu to die, he's genuinely one of my faves and deserves so much better than he got

yasss we stan Lord Rain Master!!

hmm I wonder if Mu Qing's interrogation has anything to do with what Hua Cheng heard him and Feng Xin arguing about on Mount Tongl'u

I mean Hua Cheng isn't wrong, the two of them really have zero self-preservation instincts lol

yes finally, we're going to get the full story!

so Jun Wu/White No-Face has basically been manipulating everything from the very beginning? damn - and I thought Mengyao in mdzs was a psychopath, this is just on a whole other level

Guoshi ships it!! he's definitely confused about where all the gay came from though lol

I'm screaming Guoshi is definitely trying (and failing) to give Xie Lian some sex ed

this whole battle seems like some sort of crack dream

okay but Guoshi is actually the best

Guoshi referring to Quan Yizhen as a ‘fluffy child’ is the peak of hilarity

not Guzi!

this Hua Cheng is He Xuan isn't it

not gonna lie, I kinda ship General Pei and the Rain Master

Hua Cheng already imagining having a child with Xie Lian - I can't, that's too adorable

final battle approaches

Hua Cheng wanting to make a good impression on his boyf's ‘dad’

come on Xie Lian, you're so good at sussing out every other gods mysteries but you can't even figure out all Hua Cheng has done for you? you're so fucking obtuse at times

Hua Cheng thinking that Xie Lian was going to stab himself again - my heart - and then being reminded of when Xie Lian was stabbed by a hundred swords but Xie Lian just laughing it off - ahhh why did they have to go through so much pain

I think Feng Xin is slowly coming to the understand the depth of trust and love and mutual respect that is Hua Cheng and Xie Lian's relationship - he's definitely not against it now at the very least

also glad we're finally getting some character growth from Mu Qing, after 800 years

so this is the truth of Mu Qing and honestly, I can't really say I dislike him so much anymore, like I understand where he's coming from

he's still a dumbass for not realising that Xie Lian genuinely did want to be friends all this time though, but then again, if I met someone as good as Xie Lian I would be a little skeptical too lol

this whole scene is low-key hilarious, they're both dumbasses

scratch that, all three of them - Xie Lian, Mu Qing and Feng Xin - they're all dumbasses

‘Xie Lian responded, “IF THEIR ENTIRE FAMILIES ALL LOOK LIKE THAT, YOU SURE YOU WANT TO FUCK THEM??”’- I'm crying

okay now I'm starting to understand where all the shipping of Feng Xin and Mu Qing comes from, this whole bit with Feng Xin carrying Mu Qing and them bickering is kind of adorable

Mu Qing and Feng Xin definitely give the vibe of Xie Lian's brothers who don't really approve of Xie Lian's boyf in the first place but still don't want him to be harmed for the sake of Xie Lian - I actually love their friendship okay, however much history they have between them all

and now we get the rest of Hua Cheng's story!! I'm so ready for this

no fucking way - so Hua Cheng could have been a god??

he definitely chose the ghost life for the aesthetic lol

I love the trope when couples fight together as a team, like all the wordless communication and synchronisation

‘Because he wasn’t as good as Hua Cheng thought him to be.’

that's the thing though, Hua Cheng has seen every bit of Xie Lian and knows that he's imperfect, he understands him and sees him for who he is - Xie Lian, don't you understand? Hua Cheng cares about none of it, all he cares about is you, its all he's ever cared about

‘“Your Highness, don’t be afraid. Remember? The one basking in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is ‘you’, and not the state of you. No matter what’s happened in the past, I will never leave you. You can tell me anything.”’

nooo not ruoye!! :(

‘He couldn’t help but wonder—perhaps, to be defeated by someone, to end these relentless days of brokeness and madness, was possibly Jun Wu’s wish deep down.’

Xie Lian you are truly one of a kind - “shattering boulders on chest” lmao

‘All of a sudden, thousands of emotions, millions of words swarmed into his head. There was gratefulness, there was shame, there was heartache, there was wild joy, but above all else, there was incurable love.’

fucking finally!! it's taken Xie Lian way too long to realise the truth lol

‘Hua Cheng said quietly, “Your Highness, I understand your everything. Your courage, your despair; your kindness, your pain; your resentment, your hate; your intelligence, your foolishness. If I could, I would have you use me as your stepping stone, the bridge you take apart after crossing, the corpse bones you need to trample to climb up, the sinner who deserved the butchering of a million knives. But, I know you wouldn’t allow it.”

He said all this as the maple red of his robes slowly faded away.’

fuck me they better have a happy ending after all that or I'm going to scream

Jian Lan and Feng Xin deserved better, they all deserved so much better

I love how every little story arc is getting some sort of resolution as we near the end

‘Hua Cheng waited for him for over eight hundred years, so what did it matter if he waited for Hua Cheng for another eight hundred more? It could be a thousand years, ten thousand years, and he would still wait, and continue to wait.’

‘A smile hung on Xie Lian’s face, thinking, he wasn’t the only one who had fallen.’ - but I'm also bawling

‘Last time, they spent eight hundred years running towards each other. This time, it only took an instant to fall into each other’s embrace.’

final chapter let's go!! but also I don't want this to end

love that they've returned to Puqi shrine it's so wholesome

I'm screaming - this definitely means Hua Cheng and Xie Lian have already slept together lol - and Feng Xin and Mu Qing are just there like ‘we really didn't need to know that’

the elusive He Xuan??

I am living for domestic HuaLian

“I am forever your most devoted believer.”

---

after finishing the book:

screaming crying laughing I can't believe its over

this was a genuine masterpiece

also reading the post-script I think MXTX is legitimately a genius like wow, I aspire to be as talented as she is

(rated 5 stars)

---

my annotation system

[lanchang]

ok wait i just saw the xianle quartet pole like a week late so im not the fxhc shipper but i do have a vision: they both like being the protective one in a relationship so itd just be so funny to watch them go from disliking each other to begrudgingly liking each other to being protective of each other and just like kinda competitive about being more protective of the other. essentially what happens when both want to be the big spoon (+ baggage of a messy past)

NODDING AND TAKING NOTES. thank you for coming forward to shine light on the subject i am compiling so many notes and takeaways from this. its not something i could see happening in canon but lets have fun yk? i think they could bro out together in a bisexual gay romantic alliance way. i do think they have the least reason to hate each other in canon and i think that feng xin would admire hua chengs audacity in the right circumstances also fx has been surrounded by gay cunts his entire life so really i feel like hes kind of prepared. i like what you said about fx being impressed by all the things hc can do that makes sense to me maybe they could go into business together i cant remember where i ranked them on the ikea furniture challenge but i think they should be put in situations where they have to work together i do think they could find a lot to admire in each other if they opened their eyes to it actually i kind of like this the more i think about it

[lunar-magnolia]

IT'S TIME TO GO ON A SPECULATION JOURNEY @l-tachi​

It's true we don't really know Hua Cheng's past before he fell into Xie Lian's arms as a child, but we do have some things that could help make up a little picture of his human life. I might leave out some things and take them for granted, like his transformation from simple fire ghost to savage:

*putting a read more because Long and spoilery

He was a citizen of the Imperial Capital of Xianle or lived in the vicinity of it. It's possible that he lived outside the walls, because of what Feng Xin said about knowing all the children who lived in the poorest part of the Imperial Capital. He said he had never seen little Hua (or Hong-er) around.

Because of his cursed eye that he kept covered, it's possible that his family was cast out of the city when he was born. Maybe they did live inside the city, but once little Hua came around and voice spread about his curse, they might have been kicked out.

It's also possible that only his mother loved him in the family, and the fact that she wouldn't give him up and doomed them all could have been cause of fights in the household. Thus we have little Hua lying about having parents and refusing to go back home.

It's also possible that he truly doesn't have a name. Hong Hong-er is the way his mother called him, and sounds more like a cute nickname that referred to his red eye (it means "little red"). He never gives Xie Lian a proper name, neither when he's a child nor when he was in his Wuming form. This is completely debatable tbh

However, when he meets Xie Lian again after 800 years, he does give a name that he says he prefers: San Lang. In the notes of the book it says that it indicates the third son of a household. This made me think that he probably had at least two older siblings when he was human. Which is nice, but all things considered he probably didn't have a good relationship with them.

CW: death, suicide mention

It's unclear if he jumped or just fell from the wall during the festival as a child. There's a high chance that Xie Lian is an unreliable narrator and Hua Cheng never told him why he was in such a dangerous position in the first place. It's however safe to imagine that he was going to jump, but seeing the parade he stopped himself. He was either pushed or he slipped.

I say it's kinda safe because of the infamous scene where little Hua is pleading to Xie Lian to tell him why should he continue living when he really doesn't want to. His life has been too hard on him and he wants to die. Xie Lian tells him to live for him if he can't find anything else worth living for. So yeah.

The guoshi of Xianle mentions that the kid Xie Lian had brought to the Royal Pavilion centuries ago was cursed and he probably never lived past 18-20yo. We know that up until 14 years old he was alive and well and in the army, fighting in the name of the Crown Prince. We also know that after the Land of the Tender accident he was booted from the army. At some point after the fall of Xianle, he died.

We see him protecting one of Xie Lian's temples when people wanted to burn it down. It's possible that he died doing exactly that, when he was around 18/19 years old.

In fact, Hua Cheng mentions that dying in Xie Lian's name is the greatest honor for him. And it already happened twice: when he was a human and when he sacrificed himself as Wuming.

Also another possible indicator of the age he was when he died is the age he has in his Hua Cheng form. He is described as a youth in his 20s.

After his sacrifice as Wuming, his soul still refused to leave the mortal realm and dissipate. We can imagine that after that episode mount Tong'lu opened and he went there as a fragile soul to regain his power and become at least a savage again. He knew he needed to become strong again if he wanted to protect Xie Lian, so he risked it all.

We know that while journeying towards the kiln, he gained enough power to have a "physical" form and gauge his own eye out to forge E'ming in a desperate situation. Plus, at the exact same moment, the heaven sent a heavenly calamity and he ascended as a ghost. But since Xie Lian wasn’t there and he had lots of beef with the heavenly officials, he immediately jumped down and continued on his path to become a supreme.

He stayed in the Mount Tong'lu zone for 10 years. In these ten years it's highly probable that he slew as many ghosts as he could to gain as much power as he could get. He also spent his time exploring the ruins of Wuyong and honing in his art skills in the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods.

When he entered the kiln, it's unclear if he found other powerful ghosts to fight inside it or not. In any case, once he was done and still inside, before escaping he carved the giant Crown Prince statue that we see in book 5.

After escaping the kiln, he had all the "physical" strength. But we know that he's also extremely knowledgeable, and that when he challenged the 35 heavenly officials, some were civil gods and he beat them in debates.

So it's possible that after becoming a Supreme, he started his journey to gather as much knowledge as he could. During the years he gained fame and his Crimson Rain Sought Flower title.

With his status and skill, he eventually founded Ghost City and started building his own wealth too, thanks to the Gambler's Den.

It took some time, but when he was positive he could take all the 35 heaven officials down at their own game, he went and became the infamous Hua Cheng, the Crimson Rain that sought the flower.

I think it's important to mention that the guoshi of Xianle also said that the people cursed like Hua Cheng had the worst luck. Instead, we see Hua Cheng being possibly the luckiest person on Earth. This is probably the consequence of Xie Lian changing his fate and giving up all his luck (per the cursed shackle). Among everything, in fact, guoshi said that to survive the curse, fate must be changed.

I think Xie Lian altered Hua Cheng's fate both when he was a human and held onto little Hua when everyone else told him to let him go, and when he gave up his luck just after Wuming's sacrifice. Xie Lian, in fact, says that luck will be transfered to people who lack it. And Hua Cheng, who was in the vicinity, was probably the most unlucky person present. I think he absorbed most of Xie Lian's luck, and that also impacted his fate.

Another possibility is Hua Cheng gaining luck after he forged E'ming. If his eye was the reason why his luck was so terrible, removing it and sealing into a spiritual device could have been the catalyst to his apparently infinite luck.

I think he also spent his time looking for Xie Lian, but the world is vast and he lost track of him after the Wuming arc. So he focused on improving himself to be worthy of one day approaching Xie Lian.

I guess he came to know Xie Lian's whereabouts when Xie Lian ascended for the third time. It's possible that he got word of it from Black Water, and then the rest is history.

Akdhskfhjd I might have skipped some things, please feel free to ask more questions if something is unclear or doesn't make sense. All of this is pure speculation based on the information we have from the book and it's all debatable. Still, I had fun thinking about it! Thank you so much for the prompt!!!

[veliseraptor]

For the meme: top 5 Hua Cheng moments

Love how pretty much every screencapped bit of dialogue here on this post shows a different format! It’s because I’ve read this novel on two different computers and in three different programs.

Anyway! Everything about Hua Cheng’s moments is tops but here’s five that stick out to me especially as of right now.

1.  Everything about his intro really. It’s such a good intro. Mystery! A shadowy handsome figure! Crushing a skull under his boot! Scattering into butterflies just as Xie Lian is about to see him! It’s all so gloriously dramatic and not only is it just good on a “oooh who this” level, it’s also like.

This is the first time Hua Cheng has seen Xie Lian in, what, centuries? Def the first time he’s actually approaching him. He is making a presentation. He is introducing himself in style.

And you know internally he has to be spending the entire time going “BE COOL BE COOL BE COOL” about it, and I personally find the mental image of the coexistence of very suave mysterious ghost king Hua Cheng and sort of freaking out about finally approaching his crush Hua Cheng. 

And just. The drama. I fucking love how dramatic Hua Cheng is. It’s a ghost king thing, as far as I can tell, and that’s legit. To survive Mount Tong’lu you need a strong sense of the dramatique.

2. The part when he’s de-aged and fretting about not being able to protect Xie Lian. 

A lot of these are more Hua Cheng being a snarky bastard but there are a lot of places, especially on reread, where Hua Cheng gives me a lot of feelings. And this was - and is! - one that sticks out to me. We don’t often see Hua Cheng in a state of legitimate distress - specifically distress rather than anger. Seeing it here, specifically tied to his frustration and anger at his own helplessness and the ways it calls back to his inability to help Xie Lian in the past...hurts.

I’m just also going to be Feelings!!!! about that sentiment of “you’ve always been the strongest, but you don’t need to be strong every waking moment of every day.”

He’s been trying so hard to Ghost King and be Super Cool around Xie Lian all the time, and that’s collapsing here, and it is so hard for him. 

This Lise has feelings about Hua Cheng needing to know that he can exist for himself and not just to serve/worship Xie Lian.

3. Trolling He Xuan.

TGCF in general has great reread value but one of my favorite little things about rereading was how much funnier it made every single one of Hua Cheng’s interactions with Ming Yi. Every time they’re in a scene together it’s just...solid gold. And I would love to know what they’re saying on their own communication array, which I assume they have.

My favorite may actually be the part where Hua Cheng punches Ming Yi across a temple and on first read it’s like ‘oh well Ming Yi was the safest target to threaten’ and on second read it’s like. Hua Cheng did you just kinda want to punch a fellow Supreme just cause? Especially after then:

HUA CHENG.

I want to know everything about the relationship between He Xuan and Hua Cheng and I don’t know why fandom hasn’t given me more of that, but unrelated.

4. Ruthlessly fucking with Feng Xin and Mu Qing at every possible opportunity.

Personally, I love both Feng Xin and Mu Qing (especially Mu Qing) but I find it honestly hilarious every time Hua Cheng is in the same region as them and he just. Takes every possible opportunity to throw them under a bus. He’s looking for buses to throw them under! Like, not permanent ones because that would upset Xie Lian (though I do think if he thought for a second that it wouldn’t he’d be in favor of that), but at least minor ones. At least severe inconvenience and discomfort.

It’s just a kind of...well, very targeted demonstration of anger but in extremely petty ways, which I really kind of love? Because when you’re dealing with massively powerful people who could destroy a lot of things, sometimes it’s more effective to slap them across the face than like. Stab them. Which is basically what he does. 

It’s especially good in the bit above where Hua Cheng is still ~in disguise~ (sort of), especially it’s another one where the fact that he is definitely aware of who they are, and they are aware of who he is, and none of them are owning up to having this knowledge, but it keeps being good throughout. Like:

It’s horrible. I love it.

5. The confession (?) scene in the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods.

(Please ignore the random missing letter ls, I have no idea why that is happening in my epub.)

I really don’t have a lot to say other than just me, lying down on the ground and making incoherent sobbing noises because oh no. It’s good. It’s feelings. It’s. Augh. His tension! His fear! His anticipation of rejection! and then hug from the best martial god and you know Xie Lian gives great rib-crushing hugs probably.

Hua Cheng Deserves Affirmation Without Reservation Too, is kind of a hill I’ve decided to set up an easily wreckable shrine on. 

[spockandawe]

Oh, interesting. Not that I have any personal knowledge of chengyu or experience with their interpretation, but I was reading hunxi-guilai’s post about jiang cheng’s character song, and this one chengyu referenced in the lyrics caught my attention.

作茧自缚 /  zuò jiǎn zì fù

hunxi-guilai:

zuojian zifu literally means “to spin a cocoon and bind yourself,” and generally occupies the same idiomatic space as English sayings like “you reap what you sow” or “you’ve made your bed, now sleep in it.” 

And I love what this post is saying about jiang cheng’s story, but the literal words made me think of Hua Cheng, and what he does with Mu Qing and Feng Xin. 

Because, very literally, he wraps them up in silk cocoon. This makes sense, because butterfly motif, and serves a good functional purpose in the story. But the chengyu also makes me think about Hua Cheng’s opinions of their choices and actions.

The first round of cocoons are just kinda... incidental, for the sake of convenience. Hua Cheng and Xie Lian stumbled across a pair of inconvenient people, who Xie Lian likes for some reason, so he was just getting them out of the way. But the second time he wraps them up, it’s after they made a major effort to fight him, accuse him of nasty things, and steal Xie Lian. Or, basically, ‘you were asking for this.’ And in general, Hua Cheng has no time for sympathy when it comes to these two. They made the decision to abandon Xie Lian in his time of need, they made the decision to be selfish and faithless, and now, they deserve anything bad that happens to them.

I definitely don’t have the context to know whether this is a connection that really works in the original language, or whether it could have been coincidental vs intentional, and it’s a story moment that passes by pretty quickly. But that was a connection that just jumped out at me, and I thought it was interesting!

[nyerus]

Hi, nyerus..How are you? If you don't mind me asking, can I ask your thoughts on ships between: shi qingxuan x he xuan ; feng xin x mu qing ; and quan yizhen x yin yu? Do you think based on their personality that romantic relationship can work for either of them?

Sorry if you've answered this question before....

Hello! I’m alright, thank you for asking! I know I’ve been kinda MIA on tumblr lately (hoping that my queue will let ppl know I’m still alive LOL)! Things are busy for me as of late -- but thank you for sending in the asks! I’ll answer this one first <3

So about these ships, simply put: I like them all in a sort of... dysfunctional way? If that makes sense. xD

For HX and SQX, I actually see them as quite dark paring. HX made a definite effort to get SQX out of the situation between him and SWD -- which is indeed important to note -- but ultimately, he still prioritized his revenge over SQX. After everything that happened between them, it's heartbreakingly doomed. Which is what I like about it haha. However, I also do have to spare a thought to HX's fiancé, who he loved dearly and who died a gruesome death as a result of SWD's machinations. SQX might not be directly responsible for that, but... yeah it's a painful thing. ;v; In AU though, I suppose you could make anything work out!~ Sometimes you gotta just embrace delusion and have fun.

FX and MQ I do like as FWB/f*ckbuddies. I think they have a really interesting dynamic in the sense that their world views are completely incompatible. It's why they fight so much, and especially because neither of them really make the effort (or want to) to meet each other in the middle. However, they do still have a sense of loyalty to each other, purely because of their long and shared history. Another reason for their fighting is also likely because that is what's familiar to them. It’s what they know and are comfortable with. I think that's a really fascinating aspect of their relationship as a whole. But I can definitely see them shacking up every now and then as a "no-strings-but-oops-accidentally-strings-but-neither-of-us-will-acknowledge-ever" type of couple lol!!

And as for QYZ and YY.... I originally did kind of ship them, but the more I thought about it, and about YY specifically, the more I felt bad for him. YY has a lot of trauma that is directly tied to QYZ, and also carries around no small amount of guilt. QYZ means well, but he doesn't really understand YY's boundaries, which can be exhausting to deal with. However, the two of them genuinely do care about each other. Even if YY does say he hates QYZ, I think it's pretty apparent that he does not. That his hatred is actually guilt, and regret/resentment for the deeply unfair situation he was put in. Not necessarily to QYZ himself. Still, sometimes it's not easy to separate the two things practically, and QYZ is not blameless. I also think this relationship hits a little too close to home for me as well lol. But similar to SQX and HX, I think they do have romantic potential in an AU where a lot of those stressors are not present.

Regardless, I have read fic for all 3 pairings before and enjoyed them lots! At the end of the day, I've never really been a sidepair shipper. I know all of these are really popular in fandom and I do enjoy seeing them around if they float along my dash or timeline, but I don't really seek out content for them. I definitely support people going wild and having fun with these characters and various parings though! (E.g. a rarepair I'm actually fond of conceptually is QYZ and MQ, just because I think they would work very well off each other personality-wise!)

[zhuhongs]

Here’s my long ass review of TGCF that literally no one asked for it i have opinions and I have no one to tell them too so i must write them out and post them. (also part of this is abt the mdzs novel bc i can’t not compare them and I have a lot of thoughts abt that too)

This is very very long so it’s going under a read more. Spoilers ahead!!

Okay so first off this book was a fucking behemoth i can’t believe i read all of that (minus the extras) in under a week.. what the fuck. I definetly got reading fatigue halfway thru book 3.

I’m gonna separate my thoughts into sections bc i  have a few points that don’t all relate

firstly, overall writing and organization:

I said it earlier but tgcf is a lot more structurally sound than mdzs imo. My biggest criticism of the MDZS novel (minus the bad sex scenes, homophobia, and general I hate mxtxness of it) was the way the flashbacks were presented. 

Like OH MY GOD they were presented so badly. I hated that the flashback was told intermittently and only when one of the characters invoked the past. For example, when WWX meets Jiang Cheng and a second time, Jin Ling distracts JC to release “Mo Xuanyu” bc he saved his life in the Nie Ancestral hall earlier. WWX then proceeds to be the self sacrificing dude he is and take away Jin Ling’s curse and put it on himself. When he escapes and returns to LWJ, LWJ offers to carry him.

 If you watched CQL, you know exactly what LWJ is referring to when he says smth to the effect of “You once offered to carry me too, remember.” HOWEVER in the novel you don’t know what he’s talking about. This is because the flashback wasn’t been revealed to you yet. The next chapter goes to tell the flashback. I think that this takes away all of the emotional depth away from the scene. But in CQL, having the flashback already be known, you make the connection on your own and are like “awww wangji remembers that.. even 16 years later.“ Its a lot sweeter bc you know what the two have gone thru. At this point in the MDZS novel its barely the 30th chapter or so and you have no real idea what wangxian have been thru together or what reasons wangji has for loving wwx. You just think, well obviously they like each other bc this is a danmei novel and they are the two leads, ofc they have to like each other. But in cql, you learn through watching them that they’re in love. It’s not just like”well they have to be!! its a bl!!”

Okay that was a rlly long side tangent but it makes me so angry. So what did any of that have to do with TGCF?? well tgcf doesn’t have this issue. In fact, i believe that it gains a lot from having the flashback withheld from the reader. 

I really liked how the flashbacks were contained to books 2 and 4 respectively because it adds a layer of mystery. Hua Cheng is a very secretive man so it makes sense for us to not know everything about him upfront. The way that the author teases and hints little things at you make you want to know more, making it all the more satisfying when the truth is revealed. Because in a way you Know that Hua Cheng meets Xie Lian before and you know that he’s the child XL saved during the God Pleasing Ceremony but you don’t know all the details. Like obviously since Hua Cheng is a ghost you know that he’s died and it was likely for Xie Lian or Xian le’s sake but you probably never expected that he actually died twice. Once on the battle field and second when he took the human face disease. I think the difference between these flashbacks and the flashbacks in MDZS result from the length. In TGCF you get two long concise flashbacks that make sense to be placed where they are. Book 2 because you already have a feel and hint at what the characters have been through and book 4 because the White No Face appears again so then you learn how he and Xie Lian met before. It wouldn’t make sense to place book 2 any earlier bc there is no emotional impact. And it doesn’t make sense to place book 4 earlier because you don’t know what the white no face’s deal is so it’d be confusing. In MDZS, you get numerous short flashbacks happening alongside the main story and it makes it hard to piece together the timeline in a way that feels satisfying. Ik a lot of ppl grill cql for having a confusing intro episode and having a rlly long flashback but its much better than the mdzs novel. However the mdzs donghua handles the flashback in the most concise way imo.

Overall i think the way the story is structured is very good and is a step up from mdzs. Also the horror aspects of tgcf are rlly enjoyable and honestly i think mxtx should just write short horror stories at this point. like enough long ass novels chock full of fetishization. just write some fun horror with no romance and call it a day.. pls

Side Characters:

okay so straight up, i think the side characters arent used as well as they were in mdzs bc mxtx wanted to focus on hualian and didn’t want to give the side characters as much focus. This is a weaker point of the novel.

I’ll get into it more below but i think hua cheng was done dirty as a character by having him rlly only care abt xie lian. Since he doesn;t have any real relationships with others outside of xie lian this takes away from having more depth in the side characters. They’re really only related as far as xie lian’s relationship with them. Though thankfully xie lian gets rather close with a few officials and the ones we get to see more of are rlly interesting. I especially loved the reconciliation of mu qing, feng xin, and xie lian at the end of book 5. honestly their relationship was one my favorites and i’m glad they finally said what they had to say to each other after 800 fucking years. Also Shi Qingxuan is a delight. we stan sqx in this house.

The characters i wish we had seen more of were yushi huang (although she didnt rlly want to be there, good for her), Quan Yizhen and Yin Yu. I very much wish yizhen and yin yus story happened earlier on and we had more time with them. It felt strange to have their subplot occur towards the end and it was sort of out of place but i liked them a lot!! i wish there was more to it. and that there was a reconcilation but mxtx hates happy shidi’s doesnt she, (glares at novel jc). Also man yin yu did NOT have to die like that i’m sad.

Also, honestly.. i don’t think qi rong added to the story whatsoever and i have no clue why he and guzi were there. qi rong just pissed me off the whole time and added literally nothing.

going back to yushi huang, i’d like to say for the millionth time that i hate how mxtx uses any of her female characters. like we get it.. u hate women being useful... im still pressed but what i want to say has been said many times before so ill leave it at that.

Hualian:

I really really did like hualian at the end. They had a truly epic love story and it was so beautiful, especially when hua cheng repeated his words as wuming to xie lian as he started to disappear. But, I said it once and i’ll say it again. I don’t think Hualian is a super healthy relationship. As fiction its fine (i firmly believe fiction impacts reality but let me finish), i guess bc literally nothing about their situation can be replicated irl and none of it ended up containing manipulation or abuse or anything bad but there was a potential for it to and i’m really glad it didnt go that route.

Hualian is a highly idealized and romanticized relationship full of some truly troubling feelings of self worth. While its “beautiful” in a way that hc really was xls most devoted believer, it wasnt healthy for him to live for xl like this. Nor was it healthy for xl to feel so unworthy of hua chengs love.  

Hua Cheng’s devotion to Xie Lian is a little too extreme and it bothers me. When the truth was revealed abt the Temple of 10,000 Gods I had the same reaction as Mu Qing and Feng Xin. I was like... HEY WHAT THE FUCKK that’s a little uh... thats NOT HEALTHY,, dianxia PLEASE say smth. But ofc Xie Lian didn’t say fucking anything and and i was so pissed. Like the whole thing of Hua Cheng living his life solely for XIe Lian is really kinda fucked up and not romantic. I was holding out hope that at some point XIe Lian would sit him down and be like “Hey! I love you and i’m really grateful that all these years you’ve still believed in me when no one else did. But you can’t just live your life for my sake. You deserve love from many other other people and deserve to have a life and happiness outside of me. I still want to spend the rest of my life with you, but you need to not only think of me.” or something to that effect

It bothers me that after Xie Lian learns the truth he doesn’t once reassure Hua Cheng that he didn’t have to make Xie Lian his reason for existence. Like.. idk i just think that’s rlly kinda unhealthy. Like I understand why Hua Cheng is so deeply devoted to Xie Lian-- he saved his life twice and was the only one to ever show him kindness and he’s seen xie lian suffer a fate worse than death multiple times. I get that he wants to protect him and make his life easier, but to not let anyone else into his life and spend 800 years looking for xie lian is just overkill. Like if the whole 10k statues thing never happened i’d be 100 percent fine with hualin but the whole devotion to that extent... uhhh yea.. no that put a bad taste in my mouth. Obsession should not be romanticised. I don’t think any reader of tgcf is going out and deciding to live like hua cheng obviously but still.

Also Side note, the whole 100 swords scene.. bro i felt for hua cheng, the way he screamed seeing that, i don’t blame him. I was so horrified reading that chapter. i don’t think i’ve been so horrified by a piece of media like that in a while. Poor fucking xie lian.. oh my god. I understand the intense reaction he had and how seeing that prompted such a degree of loyalty but still.. 10k statues?? the cave that mu qing and feng xin saw... thats a little too much obssession... like please.. dial it back.. im begging u.

I was talking to mary (liviahyes) and she said smth abt how Hua Cheng doesn’t have a character outside of xie lian. And she’s right, he kinda doesn’t. If Xie Lian didn’t exist neither would Hua Cheng. I get that that counds kinda romantic but in practice i don’t think its a good things. Especially because Xie Lian has a story outside of Hua Cheng, hehas goals, he has friends, he has something. Hua Cheng said it-- his only dream is Xie Lian. Which is romantic but very very unbalanced. 

THAT BEING SAID, i still rly liked their relationship and i think theyre cute they just have issues they need to work through. I mean they have time but yea. It wasn’t perfect but eh. overall i’m bitter bc they couldve been THAT COUPLE but theyre so many bad implications as mentioned above and i.. smh. They still have amazing moments. Like the lantern scene, the alter scene, the “what matters is you, not the state of you”, the end when hua cheng helps release the shackles on xie lian, the scene where hua cheng disappears, the way xie lian waited for him, like they were so close to being THAT COUPLE but then mxtx and her fujo ass just had to make it uncomfortable like that. i’m so bitter. Like the reason why i wrote out all of this is bc this novel could’ve been great but so many little things added up and made the experience far more sour than it shouldve been.

MXTX did hua cheng SO DIRTY by not giving him a character much outside of loving xie lian and being good at everything. Like when I first learned abt how Hua Cheng beat 33 heavenly officials at what they excel in best i was like WHO IS THIS LEGEND but honestly.. he rlly doesn’t have any motivations outside of helping xie lian and I wish he had more to him . Like if we had more situations like the one where hua cheng dug out his own eye to save the group of mortals on mount tong’lu then he’d have been a much more well rounded character. Honestly, that’s rlly the only instance where he seems to have taken xie lians ideals to heart. I wish we had more of that bc that scene was so cool. i wish it hadn’t been revealled so late and there was more than one occasion where he defends others (minus xie lian ofc) without anything for himself to gain that.

To contrast hualian with wangxian, i think wangxian work so well bc at their core, they have the same life goals and same ideas about people and the world. Where in hualian, xie lian has core principles and morals and hua cheng is just like, anything for xie lian. SMH they couldve been great but overall i think hualian falls flat for me because of my own fear of dating someone who doesn’t have a life outside of dating me. Moreso, my parents had this sort of unbalanced relationship towards the end of their marriage and it ended very badly and yea, i just can’t whole heartedly love relationships that in any way resemble this, even if it ends differently. that’s a personal thing tho.

I don’t think Hua Cheng has ANY bad intentions towards Xie Lian or ever will. I don’t think he’s ever manipulated xl or tried to force him to love him. But again, it’s my own personal feelings that makes me feel kinda.. ehh conflicted abt hualian. There was potential but again.. fujoshis ruin everything... smh. Overall i think the way it ended redeemed the issues it had but still there were issues and i really wish xie lian like,, reassured hua cheng about living his life freely at some point but whatever. 

IN CONCLUSION

TGCF had the potential to be better than mdzs, it rlly did but it was bogged down by the authors own toxic mentalities abt love, and mlm relationships, and treating women like ppl and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I enjoyed this book, truly i did (otherwise i wouldn’t have stuck through and read 750k words of it) but there are some flaws that cannot be glossed over. I hope that tgcf when it does get adapted, goes through the same miracle that cql did and makes the characters more like ppl and less like tropes but i doubt it. Also i highly doubt that a live action tgcf is feasible given the supernatural aspects of the series but we shall see. I’m excited for the donghua when it eventual comes out but i will continue to be critical of the novel bc..well.. you see why. idk if i’d reccommend this book tbh bc like yes i would, no i would... well.. </3. yea. overall, it sure was something that i enjoyed in spades. especially the last 5 chapters. I generally liked it but had many issues with it at the same time, but honestly, yea thats the standard fair for a mxtx novel. 

[mousehole5000]

reading tgcf chapters 72 - 88 end of book 2. body horror kind of in this one. if you know you know and i did include an excerpt of it

i didnt take any notes from 72-76 but uhhhh shit has hit the fan

fuuuuuuck. but he couldnt get there fast enough and then THAT happened to that family FUCK :(

xie lian has indeed been greatly sheltered and this is a painful if inevitable moment. very curious about where he goes from here :(

:pensive: the universe has its own rhythm. perhaps it does but im wondering if this is part of it orrrrrrr

wait theres a girl. shes pretty. feng xin is impressed by her this is a first. is she going to be important? is it too much to ask for? to see a girl do things?

xie lian and the king... i sad. but the anger is real from both sides regardless of their arguments. i sad

ahhh flashbacks to religious studies. read a whole essay about contagion magic vs similarity magic. pretty sure it was by one of those early anthropologists who were ummm racist but this is definitely a thing that people do

damn so xie lian’s first experience of killing anyone was during the revolt and he killed thousands. wow. “mere ants” like those crushed for him by servants. hoooo boy

:pleading: hes so good and im so sad for him to painfully learn that just being good isn’t enough

awwwww. </3

ohhh wait i think the epub version doesnt spoiler out the authors notes awwww i was enjoying the mystery but okay. not sure if i would have guessed this without tbh theres a lot of kids (2) running around with bandages in this book. but i guess the saber thing isnt likely to be anything else. also ohhhhhhhhh hong hong-er... little reddie... ah i see now :(

land of the tender; body of gold hard pressed against desire. hmmmm. im. hmmm. remember that scene with the prostitute in ghost city and how i was glad it ended quickly? i miss those days. i mean murderous desires/lustful desires okay sure thats something fine but. hmm not so sure how i feel about the rest of this. and the hair thing has significance according to the notes. i mean. hmm. moving on for now. ive seen spoilers for more about hualian’s relationship but im gonna wait to comment on it until i know everything

i would actually be curious to see feng xin and mu qing interact without xie lian when theyre still having to work together i wonder if they are more chill or less chill bc clearly feng xin cares a lot about xie lian and im wondering what theyre like with each other without him around. to be fair tho since theyre his generals im not sure if theres much room for that

human face disease time. oh boy. things really are only getting worse. im also suspecting that this disease was intentionally brought into the city to hasten its downfall but we shall see

saving this for the illustration of the differences between feng xin and mu qing. not sure what it says about me but im finding mu qing relatable that is 100% what i would do but i feel much more fond of feng xin. interesting

thank you for being a beacon of amusement in these trying times. distract your bickering friends by forcing them to play improv games. also the differences between fx and mq continue to interest me

awfully convenient there guoshi. i have to say that its looking more and more like the bad shit thats happening in xianle was actually not to do with xie lian. the fact that the yong’an rebels were being supplied? whatever the fuck is going on with lang ying.... i could be wrong but thats what im thinking im wondering how much of this was already laid out or at the very least poised to happen before xie lian intervened

here it comes this is the unsettling body horror bit

BRUHHHHHHHH. HORRIFIC. IM SORRY BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IT IN ADAPTATION FOR THE CHILLS IT WOULD GIVE ME.

hmmm after this its mu qing who is like “hey ummm you kinda just chopped that guy’s leg off when he hadn’t actually asked you to. kinda fucked up also could definitely turn on you” makes sense that it was mu qing who said that he’s clearly very smart and bc of his background he’s more likely to think of things from a different perspective than xie lian and feng xin. he’s been scornful of commoners before but he definitely understands them more so than the other two

just when i thought this couldnt get more horrific. no rest for anyone what an awful fate

saving this as a note on mu qing as a character and his attitude towards xie lian. what xie lian says here about the curse is interesting. the faces/souls vs the ones they are infecting. its awful for both of them and neither are the only truly at fault theyre being pit against each other

its telling that mu qing is the one who is telling xie lian that line about there not being a second cup of water. also BIG ARGUMENT im bookmarking this to come back to in the present day

looks like celestial palace is coming down and im bitterly remembering the fact that xie lian toppled his own statue earlier to let lang ying get away... who then presumably planted the curse.... sighs

the bits with xie lian’s parents made me tear up. this is, what the kids call, relatable.

hmmm dont think feng xin is always going to feel this way lmao

oohh that is a cool image

i.... sad. and so book 2 ends!!! im wondering when we find out exactly how the split between our trio went down. im sure its sad

politically im still not sure exactly what the message is trying to be i mean obviously theres corruption that completely throws the poor under the bus but so far its also been clear that xie lian actually cant do anything about it. but!!! also xie lian doesnt understand a lot about the world, he’s been sheltered and he’s a prince and he wants to save the world and i love him for that but he hasn’t seen what the reality of life is for a lot of people he’s looking at everything from the position of the nobility and even with all his kindness i dont think thats ever enough to bring about meaningful change. how can it? idk but we still got a LONG ways to go