#cave of 10000 gods

[wannabe-f-f-friends]

Xie Lian in the cave: He's obsessed with me 💖😗🥰🥹👰👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨💘💘💘

Fengqing in the cave: HE'S OBSESSED WITH YOU 😬😱🤢👹🙈🙉🙊🔪🔪🔪

[solacestea]

[yumaisbored]

the vibes when the art, the artist, and the muse all pose for a photo together:

(the expression on Hua Cheng’s face—yk he is SWEATING)

[rainydayrina]

the funniest part of Hua Cheng's cave of 10,000 gods is not the number of statues itself, but that somewhere along the line, HC also acquired 10,000 veils to put over every statue's face......

[bichenique]

it would be funnier if hua cheng blasted picture you by chappell roan when xie lian found out his stash of xie lian fan statues.

but it would also be cute if they waltz on the yodeling part HIHIHI

[neithoftheveil]

And now *I’m* screaming over this fic comment [dissolves into a happy pile of sentient goo]

—my newest fic—

[lunandsea]

Xie Lian came to an abrupt stop and clutched his head. "No...

I can feel it. He's the same! Not only is he still alive, but he's even stronger than before. Something let him be reborn... How else could he transform so easily into Feng Xin and Mu Qing? It's very difficult to impersonate heavenly officials— it should be nearly impossible to create fake skins of them!"

Hearing his tone go frantic, Hua Cheng also stopped and turned back. He took Xie Lian's hand and gripped it. "Don't be scared, Your Highness. He might not really be stronger. There's another possibility—he could be very familiar with Feng Xin and Mu Qing! That's why he could create fake skins of them. He must be someone all of you—"

Before he finished, Xie Lian's gaze fell to the hand that was clutching his own. Hua Cheng's words and expression both froze.

He paled and withdrew his hand, tucked it behind his back, and turned to continue onward.

Xie Lian, however, didn't follow.

"San Lang," he called out.

Hua Cheng's body stiffened. He paused in his step but didn't look back. He only acknowledged, "Your Highness" in a carefully calm voice.

***********

Right before the greatest wordless love confession in the history of literature, Hua Cheng was onto something! I’m sure he knew he was heading in the right direction, but then he remembered the thousand statues Xie Lian had just seen. All of that insightful thought that could have led them straight to the core of everything vanished, irreversibly replaced with the fear of what Xie Lian would do now that he knows. Oh boy!

[fandombros]

I'd been wondering how Hua Cheng got ink for his murals while stuck in Mt Tonglu for years. Apparently ink is just soot and animal fat. On a volcano so already halfway there lol. Not sure what I thought ink was but it's neat to see it made.

https://youtube.com/shorts/K7cm-8FR_6k?si=Y_4EbdlEl6tDTrzX

[nangongpuye]

i did a thing

MDZS (novel) :

72 named characters

50 dead (including wen ning, song lan, and wei wuxian)

conclusion: 69% chance of death, with a 4.2% chance of conscious return to life.

MDZS (any and all media) :

77 named characters

55 dead

conclusion: 72% chance of death anywhere in the mdzs-verse.

TGCF:

44 named characters (clones and alter egoes not counted)

16 permanently dead

14 ghosts

16 gods

conclusion: 36% chance of permanent death, 32% chance of dying and becoming a ghost, 36% chance in ascending.

here's the percentage, but skewed with the ghost deaths: 73%

SVSSS (svsss only, no pidw):

41 named characters

12 dead, + 1 linguang-jun missing +1 shen yuan +1 shang qinghua

conclusion: 37% chance of death/missing, 4.9% chance of returning via transmigration

conclusion of conclusions: great mxtx, why did you have to do that to mdzs????? they're all dead......

[budd-ie]

The way it has JUST dawned on me exactly why Mu Qing is so smug all the time about Xie Lian. The truth is that any time someone does something good for others, it ALWAYS comes back to bite them. Nobody is grateful, nobody is thankful, and most of the time you get physically hurt even trying. Mu Qing’s conclusion about this is “there is literally no point in being a nice person because it will only get you hurt.” He sees this pattern and he knows he’s right, and he especially sees it with Xie Lian. Think about how fucking smug Fu Yao is in the sinners pit when he finds out about “General Hua” and Xie Lian’s “death.” This is just another instance of Xie Lian’s efforts for good only ever going to waste and him getting beat to death and back for thinking he can still save the common people. What’s his problem? Won’t this idiot ever learn his lesson? When he sees the dilapidated shrine and sad excuse for a living arrangement Mu Qing looks joyous. What joy could he possibly find in another man’s suffering? It’s because it proves that trying to play good guy gets you nowhere. Mu Qing left all those years ago to focus on himself and it got him to a top martial god spot in heaven. He’s clearly right about this! This proves it!

It’s so obvious he’s right. If you want to get anywhere in life, you have to stop worrying about being “good” or “kind” because it will never bring you good returns. That’s true….so why can’t Xie Lian understand that? If every single time he gets kicked down for trying to do something nice, why bother getting up and trying again? What is he trying to accomplish?

The difference is that Xie Lian is kind not for the returns but because it is innate to him. It’s not that he never thought about himself in the past, it’s just that he’s never had a second thought about people deserving kindness in the world. Getting shot down never breaks his spirit like it breaks Mu Qing’s. Mu Qing can’t fucking stand that. He can’t stand that Xie Lian is so genuinely selfless, that he was wrong about his perception of him all those years ago. He can’t stand that Xie Lian is still trying to help him even though he knows he won’t appreciate it. If he really was only doing it for merit and to feel good about himself then everything would be fine! But now he has to grapple with the fact that he’s looking at a really, genuinely, good person and he’s just another person who shot him down. He realizes he’s looking at someone who’s stronger than him, physically and emotionally, better than him morally, despite all his talk about how they’re not that different when really they’re leagues away.

(Some book 8 spoilers below)

It messed with the flow of the paragraph so I didn’t mention it earlier, but in that second paragraph, Mu Qing’s mindset sounds a lot like Jun Wu. Jun Wu is trying to prove to Xie Lian that his path of kindness and selflessness is stupid and that when people knock him down he can choose the other (lesser) path. I always say That Mu Qing is like a foil to Xie Lian (I think this is that explanation) but if Jun Wu and Xie Lian are connected in this way then it’s almost reasonable to bring Mu Qing along too. And it makes sense that he doesn’t shine as bright in this point of view between the three of them, just like he always has. There’s something here but it was a wake up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat and a revelation kind of thing so it’s not really fleshed out at all. We’ll deal with it later.

[backpackingspace]

Will never not be over the fact that xie lian, strongest martial god, is very movable.

[biboomerangboi]

Hua Cheng essentially cockblocking himself for possibly all of eternity will literally never not be the funniest thing MXTX ever wrote.

Xie Lian was pretty much completely in love with him the second he saw those lanterns (and completely oblivious about it) and then we get the wonderful first kiss underwater moment and Xie Lian is basically drawing hearts around Hua Cheng every time he sees him. While like quietly dying cause he literally has no idea what to do with it. Like at this point he doesn’t even really understand that he is head over heels totally gone for this man.

Until Hua Cheng is like I have a beloved I just haven’t won them over yet. Which he thinks is perfectly reasonable because his self esteem is the worst and he doesn’t understand how he could have won Xie Lian over yet. (He’s only on step 22 of his Marrying Dianxia 3000 step Master Plan ((that he debates throwing out on a regular basis because he doesn’t deserve to even dream about wanting Xie Lian)). So course he’s like yeah I have this wonderful noble beautiful beloved I just haven’t won them over yet wink wink nudge nudge.

But Xie Lian is like oh of course obviously I don’t deserve nice things and fuck I actually wanted him so badly I’m actually in love with him and now I will resign myself to never being happy for his sake. (Their combined self esteem is truly a so low it’s a hole in the ground which is hilarious because they think the other person is to good for them and unattainable forever because they literally have the same neurosis.) So he starts boxing up his feelings forever constantly wanting Hua Cheng and feeling guilty about it and literally dying inside because he wants Hua Cheng like he’s never wanted anyone.

Like essentially books 3 and 5 only happen because Hua Cheng has now cursed them both by saying he has a beloved because Xie Lian believes he isn’t wanted and therefore any nice thing Hua Cheng does is just him being nice and not Hua Cheng pulling out steps 23-34 of his plan thinking he still hasn’t won Xie Lian over. (He has he so has but he shot himself in the foot so badly it’s painful to read).

Like thank the Gods Hua Cheng is so unhinged and created the cave of 10000 Gods cause Xie Lian would literally be at his own wedding to Hua Cheng still convinced he wanted someone else and this was in fact a thing they were doing to solve a case together otherwise.

Like he needed something that unhinged to put 2 and 2 together otherwise he never would have caught on he’s Hua Cheng’s beloved. Meanwhile Hua cheng is like 🥺 he’s going to think I’m a weirdo now and I’m only on step 50 of the plan 🥺 like the two of them wouldn’t have been fucking nasty 2 books ago if he just kept his mouth shut and didn’t cockblock himself so violently.

[dreamingthroughwords]

i think a theme throughout tgcf that truly truly hits me is that of you are not alone especially regarding xie lian and hua cheng. xie lian has been alone for 800 years, wandering, going through so much shit, and he is strong as hell for that. then hua cheng comes and he’s not alone anymore. someone is there to listen to him talk. someone is there to defend him. someone is there to believe in him. even though xie lian is strong, for what he went through, alone, he shouldn’t have to be doing it alone - and hua cheng is there to show him that!!! just because you’ve accepted you’re alone doesn’t mean you are supposed to or should accept it. that’s what makes hualian and the core of the book being them >together< and even fighting xie lians biggest enemy, worst fear all in one - that they defeated him together just such an incredible full circle about showing xie lian he isn’t alone anymore and even though xie lian didn’t know, the times where he was the most alone he wasn’t because hua cheng was there anyways. and this is why one of the lines i never forget especially from book 8, when xie lian tells hua cheng “won’t you stay, it’s been so long since anyone listened to me talk” and “you promised you’d never leave me” just hit so much harder because he truly loves hua cheng so freaking much but also because he isn’t alone and is about to be alone again in that scene - and then once he returns it’s so miraculous and the hope that he’ll return gets xie lian through again.

contrast to hua cheng & also being alone, from his birth to being a soldier to death to becoming a ghost to a ghost king - all of these xie lian was there and noticed him and then that devotion to xie lian made him not so lonely. i feel like this is so present with the cave of 10000 gods because his love for xie lian helped him through the most tumultuous ordeal of going through mount tonglu. the fact that he loved him so much to wait so long. so he wasn’t lonely because he knew xie lian was out there but prior he would always always just miss him or be too weak to save him thus creating who hua cheng is during the story - powerful & strong & ever devoted to xie lian.

both of them have such a contrast of loneliness and being alone but now they are there for each other to never be alone again. hua cheng is there to listen to love and xie lian will do the same. they are both SO important to the other. they’re each others hope, and they’ll always be each others home.

[rainydayrina]

Im terrible at math so i could be wrong but if im right.....:

This is your reminder that in order to make 10,000 Xie Lian statues, Hua Cheng would have to carve out an average of 29 A DAY!!!

If im wrong please let me know... *updated below*

Im trying to fingure how many he would have made a day if he ONLY worked on it during his mount tonglu 10 years but the math isnt working.

Yes i am the cant drive, sits weird, bad at math kinda gay.....

EDIT: shout out to @muigiel for helping me out. Thanks bestie ♡

I figured most of them were done in that 10 year period but the calculator didnt like me trying to uncover HC's secrets

[neithoftheveil]

Rating: General Audiences

Category: M/M

Fandom: 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Relationship: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian (Tian Guan Ci Fu)

Additional Tags: Cave of Ten Thousand Gods (Tian Guan Ci Fu); Murals; Identity Reveal; WuMing - Freeform; Grief; Confessions; XL matches HC’s freak; MQ and FX are NOT on board

Summary: In the Cave of Ten Thousand Gods, Xie Lian finds a mural Feng Xin and Mu Qing missed: a familiar ghost wearing a white smiling mask.