#feng xin being mean about it because qi rong is ‘bad’ and he is ‘good’ so it should hurt qi rong. as punishment you know?

[csilla-nocturne]

Plotbunnies Collection Post!

Here is where I will post links to my plotbunies, and fics inspired by them! Also ALL BUNNIES ARE UP FOR ADOPTION! Please take as many as you want!

Tian Guan Ci Fu:

Ruoye recognizes Hua Cheng as Wu Ming

Calamity Xie Lian kills gods AU

Alternate fate switch AU

The one where I realize I'm bad at titling these, anyway Hua Cheng gets a collar and is very happy about it.

Probably one of the meanest things I've ever done to Yin Yu.

Jun Wu amnesia spell backfire AU

Modern AU where Feng Xin, Mu Qing, and Hua Cheng learn to work together to make Qi Rong miserable.

Hualian ascend together at what was supposed to be Xie Lian's 3rd ascension.

Someone hands Hualian a baby.

Xie Lian recognizes Hua Cheng as Wu Ming, and has to avoid awkward conversations.

Modern AU paleontologist Xie Lian meets artist Hua Cheng.

Paradise Manor bed and Breakfast AU

Duel memory loss AU where Hualian drive Feng Xin, and Mu Qing crazy by being even more love sick than usual.

Feng Xin figures out Hua Cheng is traumatized, and gets kinda protective.

AU where Wulian run off together, and Feng Xin, and Mu Qing find the cave of 10,000 gods centuries later.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing find out Xie Lian and Hua Cheng are together because of the drinking game AU.

Hong-er's Mom stays as a ghost AU.

Modern AU Feng Xin, and Mu Qing find out Hualian are married travel bloggers.

Hualian babysit Guzi, and I'm mean to Qi Rong.

Qi Rong gets himself killed trying to murder Hong-er AU.

Xie Lian get severe traumatic memory loss from the temple incident, but Wu Ming is there to help AU.

Ghost kings are actually like royalty AU.

35 gods challenge AU.

Hua Cheng teaches the kids at Puqi Village all the games he was never allowed to play as a kid ;_;

Fairy AU.

Hua Cheng photography modern AU.

Hong-er is a fox spirit AU. Fanfiction based on this one:

the good prince and his fox spirit by good_vs_evo ❤️

Time travel AU

Omegaverse AU where Xie Lian is like a mantis shrimp but with his nose.

Hong-er gets adopted by Feng Xin's family AU.

Xian Le Quartet have to live through each other's memories curse.

Jun Wu's sword collection.

AU based on the Planet Crafter game.

Hualian meet early, because Xie Lian volunteers to be a human sacrifice AU.

Vampire Hunter AU

Modern Vampire AU

TGCF as SVSSS, but the MC is Jun Wu before Wuyong was destroyed.

The reason Fengqing know Xie Lian's cooking is so bad.

Xie Lian finds a tiny piece of Wu Ming's soul AU

Task Failed Successfully!

If the donghua had filler episodes.

Hua Cheng and Feng Xin keep running into each other looking for Xie Lian.

Sorcery AU.

Silly Xie Lian is never banished AU idea.

Wu Ming confesses to leaving the flower AU.

Any kinda rivalry AU really.

Modern Hualian reunion AU

Calamity Xie Lian doing revenge his way! AU

Xian Le Quartet, and silly curses.

Hua Cheng will die again of embarrassment this time.

"That little shit."

They tolerate each other! YAY!

Warning: Xian Le quartet poly NSFW

Xie Lian isn't banished after his 2nd ascension AU Fanfiction based on this one:

A Ghost to Call my Own by Soapy_Soartp ❤️

Modern AU Charity date auction.

Mu Qing finds Xie Lian doing laundry for him, and is not ok.

Xie Lian pregnant when he ascends the 3rd time AU.

Calamity Xie Lian and Wu Ming somehow take over heaven AU.

Documentaries of reality TV in the TGCF universe?

Sleeping Beauty Xie Lian AU?

Feng Xin-Ge agenda.

Mu Qing makes a discovery.

All of heaven: PLEASE GO BACK TO HATING EACH OTHER.

Modern AU date stalking.

E-Ming gets a human form

Xie Lian's Mom comes back post canon.

Virginity sword scene, but Hua Cheng already put a bun in that oven, and it's obvious.

Personal Assassin Hong-er AU.

I am mean to Feng Xin.

Modern AU Hua Cheng gets stuck with the worst wing men.

Animal Days! *Check the notes for yea-baiyi's adorable froggy drawing!*

Xie Lian kills the Reverend of Empty Words for the Shi brothers AU.

Personal servant Wu Ming AU.

Political hostage Prince Hua Cheng AU.

Go home Grandpa, your drunk.

Embarrassing parent Jun Wu.

Hua Lian soul bonding.

Modern ghost hunting AU.

Hualian baby.

Someone want to make a video game about the TGCF gods. Mu Qing has opinions.

I am mean to Feng Xin again.

Qi Rong is going to do some self reflecting whether he likes it or not.

The saddest one, featuring He Xuan.

Mo Dao Zu Shi

MDZS modern courtroom drama where cultivation is still a thing.

Reverse orphans AU.

Wei Wuxian, and his army of crows

Lan Zhan gets Wei Ying to come back to Gusu with him AU.

Wei Wuxian, camera man.

Jin Zixuan's date night plans go awry.

Crossovers:

MDZS/TGCF Hua Lian adopt Lan Huan, and Lan Zhan

MDZS/TGCF Lan Zhan drunk adventures, and the reason Lan Qiren retired from teaching.

MDZS/TGCF Hualian please save Mo Xuanyu!

MDZS/? Wei Wuxian in a zombie apocalypse.

MDZS/TGCF Please give me all the Hualian helping Song Lan with Xao Xingchen, and A-Qing's souls please.

MDZS/TGCF The Wens disturb He Xuan's vacation.

TGCF/Ranma 1/2

[junrong-not-wrong]

Thinking about modern au and Xie Lian sharing his cute little cousin with his two best friends, Feng Xin and Mu Qing. “You can grab him here and he makes funny sounds! If you want, you can even go inside him. Yes, nothing will happen. He’s been using testosterone and his periods already stopped so he probably won’t get pregnant anyways.”

Qi Rong that’s so used to Xie Lian raping him that he’s warped his thinking into believing it’s “love”. So of course he lets Feng Xin and Mu Qing touch and grope him, even though it hurts and sometimes they laugh at him. It’s love after all!

[feietouhuo]

headcanon: mu qing’s idolization of xie lian, his royal highness the crown prince ( long post )

as much as i like to joke around & say mu qing prefers beggar xie lian & thinks he’s 1000x more handsome .... the person mu qing idolizes is the crown prince of xianle. not the scrap collecting god, not the laughing stock of the three realms  — it’ll always be xie lian, the flower crowned martial god.

he mentions it explicitly in his famous scene: “you were always a better person than me”. he goes even further to say it was difficult to dislike him. “you were quite amazing”. while he may have said it in mt. tonglu, those are words he formed 800 years ago.

but it isn’t blind idolization like hua cheng’s. rather, xie lian represents everything mu qing wants to be. even better, he represents everything mu qing wishes he could do. but unlike xie lian, he wasn’t endowed with a kind & warm personality. neither did he view himself as willful.

mu qing did believe he was a charity case for the prince. & for a long time ( throughout book 2 & parts of book 4 to be exact ), he never thought xie lian was all that. anyone with the status he had could do the same. “& did you know that i never thought the difference [ in skill ] between us was all that great?”. 

that isn’t to say mu qing wasn’t grateful. he was. despite his more violent & sharp personality, he never wanted to cause problems for xie lian. if he could avoid telling him about anything he faced ( abuse, undeserved scoldings, etc. ), he would. he knew people thought xie lian was crazy for bringing him in, so he stayed silent & obedient so xie lian would never defend him publicly. & of course, he worked hard so no one could speak poorly of his skill for both selfish & unselfish reasons.

yet, to him, every little thing xie lian touted was for show. it was to make him look good to his kingdom, that’s it. 

until the events in book 4. 

first, i need to make one thing clear about xie lian: no matter how idealistic or “stupid” you think book 2 xie lian was, he did everything he did when the world was against him. he’s strong. no matter how successful or unsuccessful you think he was, he still stood up to his parents, the guoshi, & every voice against him to fight for what he believed. he saved hong hong er & knew that was the right thing to do. he stood up for feng xin against his parents when he hit qi rong for bullying. he gave mu qing the chance to rise, despite being from a criminal, impoverished family. no one wanted to help the common people except for him.

there’s a popular sentiment in media: the rich can afford to be nice simply because they have everything. mu qing believed it too. but he also believed another thing: xie lian’s sentiment was bullshit. he could try, but those are empty promises.

mu qing’s opinion of xie lian soared after the incident at spiritual mountain. though it sounds strange, i want to consider mu qing’s position during it. he was a court official in the middle heavens. based off the fact those 33 other officials wanted to share spiritual land with him, he had a quite a high standing too. or, at the very least, was well-liked. he had power obviously. he had resources as we see later. add in the fact those 33 officials wanted to drive xie lian off & leave him by himself, the situation isn’t drastically different from past xie lian’s when he helped mu qing. one with a higher status with the ability to help, one at the bottom with a bad reputation, & those who favored one while looking down on the other. 

yes, i want to admit that mu qing’s circumstances are different & more strenuous overall. but i don’t think mu qing saw it that way. xie lian was put in tough positions too. even the line “hey, don’t be mean. he served as xie lian’s servant before this, of course he’d want to help him” is reminiscent of the line “just‌ ‌say‌ ‌you’re‌ ‌picking‌ ‌them‌ ‌under‌ ‌my‌ ‌command,‌ ‌and‌ ‌no‌ ‌one‌ ‌will‌ ‌say‌ ‌anything”. they both justify certain actions, particularly actions of protection, according to duty/status. xie lian protected mu qing by giving him permission to use his status whenever bad situations arose. mu qing could protect xie lian doing the same thing, even if people would think poorly of it.

now we’re back to my previous point: mu qing was “rich”. he had everything at that point, so why was it he still pushed xie lian down into the mud? he couldn’t let go of the fear of being looked down on again by these 33 officials he associated with in the heavens. people would gossip again.

in a single moment, he realized one thing: saving even a single person — no matter what you had — was hard. he couldn’t do it. 

but xie lian did. he extended his hand to him, a child of a criminal & nothing but an errand boy, & helped all he could. xie lian might have grown up without fear because of his upbringing, but it’s still hard to say “i’ll do what i want, even if it displeases everyone i know”. 

maybe xie lian didn’t save the common people. maybe he never would. maybe he was delusional.

yet mu qing & xie lian now echo one thought: as long as i / you can save one, it’s enough. one is enough.

[crowning-art]

TGCF SPOILERS

--------

Wow lots of suitcases to unpack today

First of all, there was so much to unpack that I couldn't appreciate all the cute and funny stuff EXCEPT ONE THING LOL- WHY IS FENG XIN SCARED OF WOMEN?? I LITERALLY CANNOT STOP LAUGHING WHEN THEY ENDED UP IN THE WOMEN'S BATHHOUSE..I mean unless it was something traumatic or sad...BUT STILL FUNNY THO

Ok now in other news. Wow, I knew it. Wait, let's back up a little-QI RONG WAS XIE LIANS COUSIN?? WHAT?? It was crazy seeing everything occur with Qi Rong and honestly, I would love to see this whole scene animated or acted it out because Qi Rong was so maniacal and inhuman. ALSO lol, when the statue by Qi Rong was revealed to be Xie Lian, I was like shoot. Shoot. Hua Cheung. Someone control him. Looks like me and Xie Lian had the same line of thought at that time.

I felt really bad for LQQ tho. I mean he had to see his respected role model kill and betray him, only to learn it was his close friend. LQQ also only had good intentions in reuniting everyone so it really hurt, seeing the good people get the bad end of the deal.

I wonder if this also what happened with Xie Lian. I mean he clearly had good fortune with the way he ascended and was treated. So how did he end up being the god of misfortune?

I KNEW IT

I knew Xie Lian had a justifiable reason behind the massacre. But it brings everything back to MXTX's theme, nothing is black and white. This is also seen in Hua Cheung's actions. Hua Cheung shouldn't have revealed the whole truth to everyone, because in the end, it only hurt people more than helped them.

Similarly, Xie Lian did have the right reasons to kill, but in the end, he did kill someone with good intentions. These lines really stick the most for me:

But in the end, what was killed was killed, what was murdered was murdered. However just the reason, however compelling the reason, the truth was that he killed with his own hands an honourable king who had truly wanted to eradicate discrimination, and the last blood descendant of his family in this world.

So he deserved the blame.

I'm going to be up all night thinking about these lines.

[mousehole5000]

wow i made this draft on november 1st i really took a break from this huh anyway tgcf chapters 121 - 142

i realize now this coffin scene was inevitable. feel kinda weird about hua cheng  back and forth from Teen to Big Man but it is very funny that theyre having their “dude dont look at my boner” moment while in the jaws of a water dragon

pei ming: why didnt you guys make a bigger coffin so you didnt have to squish together like that? xie lian: haha yep!! anyways what brings you here?

“In the grand, spacious centre of the entrance hall sat a person. And this person, dressed in all black, its face snow-white—was a corpse! Instantly Xie Lian shut the doors soundly.” - king of minding his own business.

okay this is where i stopped putting notes here for a while but i did save some in my e-reader so here’s some of the highlights

“Guzi used to have a good sleeping form, but perhaps with his cheap dad’s bad influence, now he was also spread out on top of Qi Rong’s stomach like a dead fish. Lang Ying himself was curled neatly in the corner, and was covered by a few shirts. Xie Lian lifted the blanket covering Qi Rong, suppressed the urge to smother his face, and covered the two small children.” - xie lian funny moments. also it would be really funny if qi rong redeems himself by learning love through these misfit chiildren and it might actually endear me to him but i hope that doesnt happen

Every heavenly official was yelling, and even Ling Wen was throwing a fit. “DON’T THROW EVERY BIT OF USELESS INFORMATION MY WAY, HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK I HAVE TO GO THROUGH EVERY DAY? DON’T YOU ALL KNOW TO USE YOUR BRAINS A LITTLE BEFORE ASKING ME?!” - ling wen marry me right now

“An expression like “seen a ghost” that only mortals experienced was now showing on his face for the first time. Shi Wudu’s pupils shrank to the smallest they could, and he blurted, “You’re still alive?!” “I’m dead!” He Xuan said coldly.” - okay everythings going tits up rn but i did laugh

i did see spoilers re: ming yi/he xuan reveal + shi wudu’s fate beforehand so i dont have a genuine reaction other than oh shit

“He slowly enunciated each word. “I won’t touch your fate. But, here in this place, chop off your brother’s head for me.”  CLANG! He threw a rusty blade onto the ground. Shi Qingxuan stared at that blade, his eyes wide. He Xuan continued, “Then, never show yourself before me again, and I will pretend you’ve never existed in this world.” - okay idk what else is going to happen but rn im concerned that this is like the 2nd biggest ship. i guess we’ll see?? i mean i am really curious whats going to happen to them. shi qingxuan keeps calling he xuan “ming-xiong” and i... sad

shi wudu im not really invested in you as a character but these next two bits... interesting

“If I don’t die but have nothing, then that’s truly a fate worse than death. If I’m not the Water God, I can’t take care of you. I won’t even be able to protect myself. I’m scared that we won’t even last two days…TAKE IT!” - damn. something about the wealthy losing everything and not knowing how to live without it bc thats their entire life and identity

“EVERYTHING I HAVE TODAY, I FOUGHT FOR MYSELF. I WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT I DON’T HAVE. I WILL CHANGE FATE I DON’T POSSESS. MY FATE IS UP TO ME AND NOT THE HEAVENS!” - okay so the whole committing spiritual fraud by tormenting a man and his family to get your brother a cushy title thing aside this was kind of badass. heretical? possibly. but still. also is he intentionally riling up he xuan so sqx doesnt have to kill him? if so damn...

also okay as long as im here im just gonna say it. the choice that he xuan gives shi qingxuan is fucking brutal but i actually think its probably as fair as it could be. sqx didnt know about or participate in what happened to hx but they did benefit from it greatly while hx lost EVERYTHING and i can understand he xuan’s thinking of “if you really feel bad for what happened to me then you have to make a sacrifice and understand the suffering and this is as clean as its going to get” and theres a bit where sqx is trying to beg for mercy but cant get the words out which im guessing is bc theres no good argument!! what happened was fucked up!!

“When Pei Ming saw that reinforcements had arrived, he didn’t appear particularly delighted; instead he threw the sword into the ground, then rubbed his nose and said, sounding grim, “You all just had to come just as I finished making these, what the heck.” - pei ming making coffins chopping down trees with his sword i love it #wastehistime2k17

“Xie Lian brought that basket of eggs along, and gave them away as souvenirs from the mortal realm. Many who received the eggs were overjoyed; some deciding to eat it along with their own blood, and some proclaiming they would hatch an eight-foot monster.” - GHOST CITY GHOST CITY

“Placing the brush down, he blew lightly at the ink and smiled. “If I like something, then my heart will not have room for any other, and I’ll always treasure it. A thousand times, a million times, no matter how many years, this will not change. This poem is the same." - thats nice and all but king... get therapy. i actually have further thoughts but tbh i dont want to put them into words bc they are simply too personal! moving on

didnt take any notes but somewhere in here was the bit with mount tong’lu opening and hua cheng losing it and kind of um. hm. that scene. thats another trope i really hate tbh i dont care for it as a way of including physical intimacy between characters and idk if it really ever adds anything but whatever moving on

The Half-Maquillage Woman - kind of interesting monster idea bc women and aging…. yeah. however i think this would be a lot stronger if there were a) more girls and this was b) discussed or illustrated at all prior to this moment. still interesting that its included knowing the author is a woman tho and there’s been comments on how ling wen is perceived vs pei ming. this book does keep giving me hope for interesting female character arcs i really want it to deliver something

quan yizhen..... i get u

lmao i have a note on a bit with lang ying that says “please dont be hc in disguise” and..... my clown nose was on but at least i knew that. for real this is bothering me how much he’s just. always. there. i know he’s a lead but we didn’t really need him around for a lot of this. oh well.  okay now to my current notes

“Yet it was precisely because it wasn’t cooked that it had to be eaten quickly. Once Xie Lian cooked it, it wouldn’t be edible anymore” - fucking fantastic

“Xie Lian hugged his belly. “Of course! Only after having met you did I rediscover that it’s such a simple thing to be happy, hahaha…” Hearing this, Hua Cheng blinked. Xie Lian’s laughter quieted a bit, realizing what he just said was a little too revealing.” - okay i know i said what i said about being tired of hua cheng being everywhere but... the line…. the fact that theyre laughing together…. :pleading:

“It’s not,” Ling Wen said. “At least, I believe, there will definitely not be another in history who can create a dish called ‘Incorruptible Chastity Meatballs’” - and truer words were never spoken

“I, DO NOT WORSHIP GODS. “I, AM GOD!” - this was every bit as badass as i hoped but no one told me it was immediately followed up by a little bit of the ol dinner theater fjalkdsfjsd. also puqi shrine noooooooooo

“Xie Lian sighed as he thought, “Qi Rong has taken Guzi away, who knows if the poor child was eaten or abandoned. Wind Master...... ..... who knows if Black Water took him away. Pray they’re both safe.” yeah hey are we going to fucknig. find out what happened to the child???

and yeah i dooooont really care for the age regression? thing thats going on. i just dont like that trope tbh. but tiny hua cheng whipping out his fat ghost king wallet in the store was funny tho. it is really funny that hualian are just like wandering around some random towns while the heavens are in an uproar. i guess theres not much else to do but its funny

“Me too, me too. You all know of my shixiong, right? Talented, with an infinite future! He only had one small vice: he loved playing women. Decades ago, a little prostitute ghost seduced my shixiong and sucked him dry into human jerky, and that Hua, Hua, Hua, that ghost king dared shelter her.” - yes omg give me the forbidden hua cheng lore i love this for him for real it goes along nicely with xie lian’s principles about giving another cup. god i love shared values

“Hua Cheng poked again, and a small hole appeared on the wall, as if the wall was made of tofu.” - how’d he do that. why is this a ghost king power. its useful tho

*me shaking qi rong when he pops up* WHERE IS THE CHILD

mu qing fu yao is here okay im happy now. once again no one has a good grasp on their secret identity and i love that. this inn has descended into chaos and im delighted and im glad lan chang is back

“The good ol’ kitchen was suddenly squished and crowded, loud and noisy. Fu Yao was chasing that fetus spirit leaping up and down, Lan Chang was chasing after Fu Yao like she had gone mad. Half of Qi Rong’s face changed shape by the way Xie Lian was pressing him down on the chopping board, his back turning into a target for those yellow talismans Fu Yao hurled while being observed by a crowd, and Lan Chang would step on him from time to time.” - this is pure chaos. i love that mu qing was in that room when the mob checked and he didnt say a word didnt open the door just sent out a talisman as a warning. king your disguise is transparent

“Xie Lian remembered the way Feng Xin laughed until he was hoarse when he first heard that verbal password all those years back, and couldn’t help but feel nostalgic, even though it wasn’t the right time.” - awwwww omg im emotional about this... faithful friend feng xin laughing at xie lian’s stupid joke password and remembering it!!! ;_;

“They have, but they’re not effective,” Feng Xin said. “Usually they’re the most diligent in scorning the Palace of Ling Wen, like they could do the job way better if they had the position. Now that we need them to take up the task, not a single one can do even half of what she does.” - typical... typical typical typical

also emotional about the fact that feng xin contacted xie lian at all.....

also!! emotional about lan chang as a mom and wanting to help out sick lil guzi.....

xie lian forcing “fu yao” to let him help “his general” is making me.... what is friendship if not playing along with your buddies little shenanigans while also making them accept your help

“Someone like Mu Qing, even though he’s narrow-minded, petty, sensitive and skeptical, has a bad personality, constantly guessing, doesn’t say nice things, likes to nag, always offending people and has a lot of people who dislike him, has no friends, can remember small, unimportant details for a long period of time…” ”Xie Lian went on in one breath with a straight face, but in the end he concluded with, “...But I’ve known him since we were kids, after all, he’s still got principles.” - XIE LIAN PLEASE AFJDLKSFJDL omg ive seen this quote before but i figured he was talking to someone else not actually to mu qing himself fgjasdkfjsl. god thats amazing. hey im gonna help you out because i care but i will roast you first <3

waaaaaait so is lan chang aka jian lan that girl from book 2 we took a page to talk about and then disappeared? that has to be it why else would we have stopped to discuss her

“Jian Lan spat on his face, then choking his neck, she slapped him twice again. “WHAT SHITTY SUPREME! YOU SURE KNOW HOW TO BLOW YOURSELF UP! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, THINK YOU’RE EVEN WORTH TO BE THOUGHT OF AS EQUALS WITH THE OTHER THREE SUPREMES? WHAT ARE YOU EVEN GOOD AT? YOUR THICK SKIN? OF COURSE I DARE HIT YOU!” - oh this feels so good i cant lie. YES GET HIM!! CHOMPING AND VIOLENCE YES!!!!

okay this description of cuocuo.... im... that sure the hell is a creature

this book is so entertaining bc i already saw spoilers for the feng xin/jian lan/cuo cuo reveal and yet i could never have predicted the circumstances that brought it about. imagine being feng xin. the heavens are in an uproar and your only friend/enemy has been jailed for possible fetus spirit-related crimes but he escapes along with this female ghost who keeps causing problems. you figure “fuck it lets see if dianxia kept his old phone number” and he has but then he hangs up on you. you’ve got fuckall else to do so you go find him. mu qing is there but he’s in his disguise the two of you were using so you could watch over his highness while staying aloof. you think you see hua cheng only he’s a chiild for some goddamn reason but who knows at this point. the female ghost is also there and theres a fetus spirit climbing trees and biting your arrows in half. you realize the female ghost is your ex and the little demon is your son. it bites you. what do you do

amazing that despite everything going on everyone is still playing along with the “fu yao” persona when it would probably be easier to drop pretenses at this point. then again tbh if i could explain my actions to my friends while pretending to be a third party.... i probably would so.. carry on

“With all his devotees gone, only Feng Xin still treated him like the Flower-Crowned Martial God and His Highness the Crown Prince. ” “...his protection charms were all seen as trash. However, Feng Xin was still determined and tireless in handing them out; telling Xie Lian, look, you still have devotees.” “After all, he was the darling of the heavens since birth, high and mighty. Feng Xin so naturally spun around him like he was the world, so how could he possibly have his own life, his own heart” “Whether or not that fetus spirit was Feng Xin’s son, if it was that period of poverty that made Feng Xin lose the girl he loved, Xie Lian wouldn’t be able to forgive himself no matter what." ohhhh my god this relationship i. im...

oh my god i still have 30 more chapters until book 4............ its naptime now i think

[muses14]

Heaven Official’s Blessing (Review)

Type: Chinese Novel (BL) Genre: Xianxia Author: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu Rating: ��� ★ ★ ★ ★

Summary: For you, I’ll become invincible!

“Have you heard? The rubbish Heaven Official is having an affair with the ghost realm’s number one bigshot!” Eight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom; one who was beloved by his citizens and the darling of the world. Unsurprisingly, he ascended to the Heavens at a very young age. Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock of all three realms. On his first task as a god, he meets a mysterious demon who rules the ghosts and terrifies the Heavens……yet unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this demon king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time.

Characters:

Xie Lian The main character. I’ll be honest, I really adore Xie Lian. The overly nice person types gets me every time; instant bias, sorry! Sure, he’s bland (personality-wise), but this never left a bad aftertaste for me.

A naive dream… He wants to save the common people. Time and time again he fails because you cannot please everyone, you cannot save everyone, you cannot stop all things bad. There is not always a “third path”. When he was at his worst, his behavior was inexcusable. For a brief period, I actually hated him, because he was driving everyone he cared about away and was unjustly angered at their leaving. I understood the other party’s reasons, and to me there was no right or wrong. It wasn’t that simple. In the end, they came back, did they not? That tells me something at least.

Now, he has good points too. I am not here only to bash on my beloved cinnamon roll just because I can. What also makes him so likable to me is that he acknowledges he has limits (despite being OP, ironically), he knows he’s not perfect, and is no stranger to pity or humility. Having lived for so long and still having the best intentions in life, damn, that’s some honorable stuff. I cried for him on several occasions during moments where he suffered, and the kicker here is I felt he deserved most of it… It didn’t make it seem any less painful though. :(

Hua Cheng The deuteragonist. His backstory is tragic and a common trope in stories. Abusive parent(s), gets bullied, wants to kill everyone as revenge, etc. He’s pretty arrogant to all (barring Xie Lian). This facet of him rubs me the wrong way though and I learned to tolerate it. Overall, I still like him as a character.

But onto the next part, we as the reader never get to see his inner thoughts. He’s portrayed as a bad guy, but at least he doesn’t go out of his way to bully or harm others. *cough* Qi Rong *cough* As a child I felt he probably had this tendency due to being bullied, but Xie Lian’s words saved him, gave him hope, and restored his faith anew. I only wished it was fleshed out by the author and given to us.

So in my own head: As a ghost he never made any friends, didn’t feel compelled to or needed to. In the ghost realm it is an every ghost for himself world, so what use would it have been for him to make friends? If anything, only subordinates. No one treats him with genuine kindness except for Xie Lian, while he was alive and in death. This is what he remembers and knows, and he clings to it.

OP character, too? Certainly!

Relationship: One word descriptors. Beautiful. Romantic. Pure.

“I have no answer to the question you asked. However, if you don’t know the meaning of your life, then make me that meaning, and use me as your reason to live.” - Xie Lian

The words above that Xie Lian said to Hua Cheng resonates for him… And on a level I don’t think I will ever fully understand. I initially did find Hua Cheng’s admiration creepy, but that changed once I learned more of his and Xie Lian’s past together. His deep devotion is beautiful. Does he put Xie Lian on a pedestal? Most likely...to some extent. I am not going to deny that if he has worshiped the guy for 800 years.

The slow build to their getting together feels natural and not rushed to me. For Hua Cheng, what started as idol worship eventually turned into romantic feelings. For Xie Lian, having someone else show him ultimate kindness and silently standing by him no matter what warmed him to the core, and in turn, made him fall. They didn’t need any bullshit obstacles for their love to happen. The one-on-one interactions they do have are very sweet and puts a grin on my face every time. They’re my favorite couple out of all of MXTX’s works!

Supporting Characters: They are all great! I especially like Shi Qingxuan (The Wind Master) and Yin Yu! Feng Xin and Mu Qing together with Xie Lian as a trio really make my day. One con is too many get tossed aside and left in the dust, only to then conveniently reappear when it suits the main characters or plot. Bummer.

Overall: I feel this could have been shortened by quite a few chapters, because it did drag here and there and I lost interest ever so slightly until the portion boring me passed. Large sections are dedicated purely to flashbacks. Instead, I would have liked it if the author spread them out. I don’t think any of the characters are overly poorly written, but too many get left behind. I am very biased towards the two main characters and am admitting to it, so take what you will out of my review. I tried to keep it reasonable.

[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. 

[hamliet]

Your Fate Is Up to You

“I WILL CHANGE FATE I DON’T POSSESS. MY FATE IS UP TO ME AND NOT THE HEAVENS!”

So said Shi Wu Du right before he died. In doing so he directly stated TGCF’s existentialist themes on deciding your own fate.

On the most obvious level, within TGCF the roles of god, demon, human don’t dictate whether or not someone is a good or righteous person. I mean, the worst demonic calamity in Bai WuXiang and the head god Jun Wu are the same person.

To start with I might as well just state it outright that my thoughts on Jun Wu are probably a lot harsher than most of the fandom’s. That said the narrative definitely has empathy for him and his ending was perfect and objectively beautiful.

Like most of MXTX’s antagonists, Jun Wu is attempting to force empathy because he feels lonely. It’s the same motivation that drives Shen Jiu, Xue Yang, Jin GuangYao, He Xuan, Qi Rong even, etc, etc, etc. It’s also what drives many of our protagonists (Wei WuXian, Luo BingHe, Hua Cheng, etc.) Yet in the end, Jun Wu is not actually forcing people to empathize with him, but instead dragging them down with him, and he needs to realize this.

The scene where Mu Qing is poised to fall into the lava (a symbol of the hell that started it all) tells us:

Many small broken threads of flames were also singing Mu Qing’s robes, and the hilt was scorching hot, yet he still gripped on hard, afraid to let go, and afraid to look down.

If he was to let go then it was nothing but blazing flames and lava waiting for him down below. There was also the hungry wailing of countless spirits of the deceased, their cries resounding and echoing, as if they were calling for the one struggling, hanging on for dear life above to hurry and join them in companionship.

Jun Wu really just wants someone to hurry and join him in despair. But it’s also symbolic in showing the difference in Xie Lian, because instead of sacrificing parts of himself (aka his three friends: Hua Cheng, Feng Xin, and Mu Qing, plus Mei Nian Qing again), he’s determined to save them even though some might not necessarily deserve it. Feng Xin and Mu Qing haven’t treated him particularly well, but they’re a part of each other. Mu Qing is the part of Xie Lian that others tried to shame, the part of him willing to do whatever it took to accomplish his goals (usually saving people), the part of him that almost led him into becoming Bai WuXiang himself. Xie Lian needs to reconcile that part of him, the choices he made that were both good and bad in these traits, with his animus (Hua Cheng) and with his princely side in all its strengths and flaws too (Feng Xin).

Anyways, all that to say it’s fitting Mu Qing is the one dangling, about to be burned. Because especially after Jun Wu has taken so much from Xie Lian, it’d be fitting for him to deny that part of himself and any risk that he would be like Jun Wu. But he doesn’t do this, because he is similar in some sense, and because he knows it. And even if Mu Qing had sided with Jun Wu by then (and he hadn’t), Xie Lian decides to save him. It works with the theme of rebirth, in which the butterflies cannot fly over, but Xie Lian himself can because he’s strong enough to do it on his own:

Hua Cheng casually let loose a silver butterfly. That silver butterfly fluttered its wings, flying out for a few hundred feet, but before it reached even one third of the way to Mu Qing, it dissipated into silver smoke and vanished in the air.

Xie Lian knew that he was demonstrating that the wraith butterflies could not help; it was a dead end, not worth dying for. 

Mu Qing also witnessed the vanishing process of that silver butterfly, his expression gradually turning into one of despair.

He understood. Right now, one, there was no one who had the ability to save him, second, no one believed him, and on the grounds of his triggering, there was no reason at all for Xie Lian to come pull him up at the risk of his own life.

But, while despairing, he still refused to yield, and he was unwilling to give up. Mu Qing gritted his teeth, shouting, “IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME THAT’S FINE TOO, BUT I WILL NEVER FALL THAT EASILY!” 

(It’s also why during the final physical fight, MQ and FX are yet again dangling over a pit.) Xie Lian chooses to reconcile with himself, with his shadow self and with what he could have (and almost did) become, with the friends he’d driven away. In saving his loved ones, he saves himself.

Therefore, it’s fitting Jun Wu didn’t die. He could not make Xie Lian into anything close to what he became because of his choices. It tells Jun Wu that yes, Xie Lian and him are alike, but that doesn’t mean they’re destined to walk the same path. It was his choices that led him here. And because Xie Lian reconciled, there’s hope for him to reconcile with himself too.

His being forced to remain alive even after having done so much evil, and Mei Nian Qing choosing to stay with him as well, ultimately disproves Jun Wu’s cynical view of the world. It offers him another chance. Someone can always choose to do better, and he is left with MNQ who chose to do better just like he needs to.

He didn’t intend to get up at all, and Xie Lian asked, “Master, are you not coming?” 

Head Priest shook his head, “I’ll keep his highness company. After all, in the past, I didn’t stay by his side.” 

The rain was coming down harder, scouring Jun Wu’s resting face, washing away the life and blood flowing from his wounds.

As the rain washed, Xie Lian felt the three human faces on his face seemed to have gradually faded somewhat. Maybe it was his imagination.

After a moment of silence, Xie Lian took off the bamboo hat carried on his back, and tossed it from his hand, covering it over Jun Wu’s face.

Not only that, but there is a part of Xie Lian and a part of Jun Wu that are similar, that are good. And that’s the desire to save people and an understanding of hypocrisy. Though Jun Wu completely forsook the whole saving people thing for awhile, it’s not like his actions are entirely useless. The dichotomy between the righteousness of the gods and evils of demons has been completely ripped into shreds, and people on both sides have to make choices to make better.

Like, it’s pretty telling that the three gods we see who are the kindest and most benevolent are Shi Qing Xuan, whose brother cheated to get him an ascension, Xie Lian, who got kicked out twice, Yu Shi Huang, who was scorned by all during her life, and then also there’s Hua Cheng who outright refused to ascend. Everyone else who was expected to ascend and then did is a complete disaster. (Though again, Shi Wu Du outright gave us this existentialist theme with his last words: “I decide my fate!”)

Even among these disasters, we see improvements. Mu Qing is honest with Xie Lian about how he wanted to be his friend. Pei Ming tells a demon whom he wronged who has now stalked him for years to love herself, to do better, that she can choose to be better. 

And among the demons, Hua Cheng saves the day with his love for Xie Lian. Qi Rong dies saving a human child, a callback to the same act that started all of this (when Xie Lian chose to save Hua Cheng instead of continuing a festival to the gods). And He Xuan helps save the gods he betrayed, in particular returning Shi Qing Xuan a reminder of who he is. He may not have earned his ascension, but he’s the one in the end protecting the people with spiritual powers, because he is strong enough even without his brother’s help. Instead of defining Shi Qing Xuan by who his brother is, He Xuan defines him by who Shi Qing Xuan is.

When he saw a “Hua Cheng” come by, he quickly called out, “CRIMSON RAIN SOUGHT FLOWER!!! You’ve finally come back! What the heck were you doing leaving for so long, have you thought of a way to connect with his highness? No no no you best think of a way to help me deal with the situation here first, do you see all those fiery rocks coming down from the sky? Think, fast! Blow a breath or make those endless little butterflies go up and chase them away or something, otherwise we’ll die....”

“Hua Cheng” didn’t speak a word, coldly allowing Shi Qing Xuan say that giant pile of words in one breath, and finally, as if he was growing impatient listening, he cut him off directly, “Deal with it yourself.” 

Shi Qing Xuan exclaimed, “Deal with it myself? Don’t joke at a time like this, I’m not his highness, I can’t understand your jokes. How do I deal with those rocks on my own…” Before he finished his sentence, “Hua Cheng” seized his back collar, and yanked him out of the human array directly.

...Yet unexpectedly, after “Hua Cheng” had pulled him out he wasn’t done, and a hand came swinging, smacked him and sent him flying out.

...“It’s fine it’s fine, I didn’t die! He didn’t really hit me, he was just lending spiritual powers!” ...

Shi Qing Xuan examined his hands, then looked at his own body, emitting spiritual light from head to toe...

Just then, “Hua Cheng” flung his right hand, and tossed something at him. Without thinking, Shi Qing Xuan raised his hand to catch, but when he saw what it was he caught, his entire face blanched.

That object was the Wind Master fan!...

Shi Qing Xuan was clutching that dearly familiar fan, his neck stiff, and slowly turned to that “Hua Cheng”.“Hua Cheng” then repeated again coldly, “Deal with it yourself.” 

He Xuan, someone who had no faith in justice or the gods or anyone, has faith in this one former god, now a beggar. And because of the return of his fan, because of who He Xuan is, Shi Qing Xuan remembers who he is and who he could be as a god, and saves people.

You only need one person to believe in you, to remind you that you can be better, in the end.  For Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, for Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan, for Gu Zi and Qi Rong, for Xuan Ji and Pei Ming, and even for Jun Wu and Mei Nian Qing.

[peerless-soshi]

Xie Lian’s moral code is an interesting thing. In his life, he is guided by unconditional morality and empathy, claiming that good reasons never justify bad actions... and yet he never expects the same from others. It’s not about putting your own personal rules on strangers. That would be unhealthy. Rather, Xie Lian is strict to himself while being forgiving to others. Or - never forgiving himself things he pardoned those close to him? 

That’s the point - he doesn’t seem to care about bad traits of people he loves. 

There are many scenes showing how Xie Lian sees himself. The most obvious one is saving little Hua Cheng and claiming that objective good - a life - is more important than rules. But that scene is also easy to judge because here values put on the scale are indeed unequal. On one side, a human life (life of a child, which is even more significant as it just started). On the other side: customs, prejudices, politics. Xie Lian knows his decision is good. People of Xie Le agree. It’s obvious. Easy. But Lang Qian Qiu? Xie Lian is still aware what to do, what is better, but he is forced to choose between reasons and human life. And he chooses, and he mourns. Because after all, killing is killing. Xie Lian blames himself despite having proper reasons but at the same time, he always searches for explanation for other people’s actions. 

Let’s take Hua Cheng. He’s a Demon King and yet Xie Lian never wonders if he killed someone, if he did a bad thing. It’s always here and now, and he doesn’t seem to care how rude Hua Cheng is to those around him, either. That’s the way he is. Being mean is, of course, a small matter and can be easily forgiven, but I can’t stop thinking about Black Water, because Hua Cheng’s decision is important and affects people. It would take one word, his one word, to save Shi Wu Du and Shi Qing Xuan. Maybe to save three lives, after all Black Water didn’t look particularly happy. But Hua Cheng chooses silence. Shi Qing Xuan was the first friendly person Xie Lian encountered in Heavens and seeing how his life fell apart, you would expect Xie Lian to at least ask for explanation. He doesn’t; instead, he justifies Hua Cheng (let’s ignore the fact that XL’s reasoning is wrong and HC’s choice was most likely not based on loyalty towards He Xuan, but rather on realization of how powerful and fierce Black Water was and how he could easily kill a god on a much higher level that Xie Lian’s). In his own life, death is always death. On paths of his loved ones - there must be reasons. Xie Lian tries to understand them.

This perception of the world is not always benefiting. Look at Mu Qing - Xie Lian was always very indulgent towards him and tolerated his moods due to Mu Qing’s situation. Was it good for him? Probably not. When Xie Lian looses his earring, Feng Xin doesn’t accuse Mu Qing, though Mu Qing still acts out of pride and feels offended (this is what makes Feng Xin mad in the end). He was the one who felt hurt, who made a scene, who slammed the doors. Well, Xie Lian allows him to do so because Mu Qing has all the reasons to feel hurt - in less than 24 hours he was humiliated by priests, not allowed to enter the pavilion, accused of sabotaging the festival and bringing misfortune to the country. All because he was disliked and poor. Then comes the situation with stealing cherries. Mu Qing is constantly bullied and Xie Lian is trying to make up for him. It’s admirable and also wrong because Feng Xin apologizes. And you know what? Xie Lian doesn’t require the same from Mu Qing. He doesn’t ask him to reflect on his actions, instead asks to forget about everything and leaves Mu Qing with bad habits. Don’t be fooled, Xie Lian sees all the flaws in Mu Qing’s character. He just... doesn’t mind them. Because MQ had a difficulty life. Because he is difficult. Maybe if Xie Lian wasn’t so forgiving, didn’t put reasons above actions, Mu Qing would be better and communication and expressing his feelings towards those who care about him, as a result wouldn’t be alone for centuries. 

Mu Qing was difficult, but he was also a fair and good person. You can’t say it about Qi Rong. I think the relationship between Xie Lian and Qi Rong is often seen selectively because we, readers, didn’t have a chance to see them in any brotherly situation. The moment we meet Qi Rong from the flashbacks is also the moment he crosses the line and his bond with Xie Lian is destroyed. However, the prince admits it himself: he and the queen were tiptoeing around Qi Rong and didn’t react harsh enough to his behavior. Obviously, Xie Lian blames it partly on Qi Rong’s royal blood and status, but he acknowledges as well that Qi Rong loved him deeply, and Xie Lian loved his cousin too. When he becomes aggressive, Xie Lian immediately remembers Qi Rong’s father. Thinks that his cousin is generally dangerous, yet recalls in details only the story with lamps.This time excuses aren’t clear, but they’re seen in Xie Lian’s memories and reactions: Qi Rong was a child abused by his father, a child that had to run away from violence, a child that watched his mother closed in her room in deep depression, then watched his mother die, a child of a scandal, humiliated by adults for things he didn’t even understand. And even though it’s not said clear, you can feel that Xie Lian and the queen avoid punishing him because life did it hard enough. The again, young Xie Lian only tells us that his cousin’s behavior was getting worse and worse, he doesn’t describe any situations. But the fact that such thoughts appear in Xie Lian’s mind prove that he could see Qi Rong’s problems, but tried to explain his actions until it was too late.

Not all this people are bad, and Xie Lian’s forgiving nature wasn’t always a mistake. Hua Cheng never let the crown prince fall, Mu Qing had his issues but  ultimately he truly loved his highness. And Qi Rong? Who knows - maybe different reaction would change things. Maybe it wouldn’t change a thing. Xie Lian couldn’t decide about Qi Rong’s life. 

It was not about putting any blame on Xie Lian. It’s just... he understands so well people he loves, and forgives them. It’s such a shame he didn’t learn to love himself earlier. 

[hamliet]

The Faces Under Bai WuXiang’s Mask

Or, dissecting Bai WuXiang. I’m not going to get into whose face is actually under BWX’s mask (there aren’t spoilers in this meta), or into Lang Ying, but I instead want to talk about Bai WuXiang’s foiling with primarily Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, but also a bit of He Xuan and Qi Rong (fitting as BWX and the latter three are the Four Great Calamities). 

Anyways. Mount TongLu. 

The funny thing about Mu Qing and Feng Xin’s horror over Hua Cheng’s love for Xie Lian is that they think he’s a demon stalking Xie Lian with the intent of harming him. 

Feng Xin was practically getting chills looking through those murals, “My fucking god… who the hell is he? He’s been watching you since eight hundred years ago?! And he is still, even now? What the fuck! This is terrifying! Is he bewitched? What the hell does he want? Normal worshippers won’t even do this much, just what the hell does he want??”

And Hua Cheng has loved Xie Lian and lived for him for 800 years. Yet, while there is a demon stalking Xie Lian for 800 years, it is not Hua Cheng but Bai WuXiang.

Bai WuXiang’s obsession with Xie Lian seems to be that he wants Xie Lian to become exactly like him, as a sort of forced empathy (I’m sensing a pattern among MXTX villains: see here for He Xuan and here for MDZS’s Xue Yang). I’m curious to see where this develops. Bai WuXiang seems to recognize Xie Lian’s terror and understand it, even, and he wants to see it drive Xie Lian into the same kind of crying/laughing despair that governs him. 

White No-Face lifted his face to look at his eyes, and he said warmly, “Your highness, I think, you might have misunderstood. There certainly will be a Supreme who will emerge from this kiln, but, it won’t be me. It would be you.” ...

“Do you remember this cry-smiling mask?” White No-Face asked, “It suits you.” ...

Then, without giving him a chance to protest, that tragically pale cry-smiling mask melted with the infinite darkness as it was heavily pressed onto Xie Lian’s face.

This is, of course, a crucial difference when compared with how Hua Cheng sees Xie Lian. He never forces Xie Lian to do anything, and accompanies him even when he doesn’t want Xie Lian to make a particular choice. In other words, Hua Cheng gets real empathy and what it’s like, that it doesn’t mean becoming exactly like someone or agreeing all the time, but walking with them. 

Xie Lian softly sighed a breath of relief and forced a smile, “Nothing, it’s just, in these past years, how I passed my earlier days wasn’t the prettiest sight, it was all muddled and very much a failure. I just thought if you had witnessed it it wouldn’t be good.”

Hua Cheng laughed, “How could that be?”

Xie Lian however, didn’t laugh at all, “It’s not a joke, it really was quite the failure.”

Hearing this, Hua Cheng withdrew his smile and turned solemn, “That’s okay too. Didn’t your highness already say it yourself?”

“Me?” Xie Lian was confused, “What did I say?”

Hua Cheng recited languidly, “To me, the one standing in infinite glory is you, the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is you, and not the state of you.”

Bai WuXiang doesn’t understand this perspective at all. He tells Xie Lian, regarding Hua Cheng:

“it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t come in. Otherwise, even if he doesn’t think so now, later when he sees the state of you, who knows if he’ll still want to be with you.”

He’s preying on Xie Lian’s worst insecurities, the ones he mentioned earlier: that he’s a failure, that he’s trash. I’m pretty sure this is actually what Bai WuXiang thinks of himself: that he’s a failure, and no one wants to be with him (well, I mean, look at you BWX...) 

We see these fears of being inherently bad in Hua Cheng as a little boy. Everyone seems to believe this about him, especially when the priest tells his fortune:

The Head Priest wiped his sweat and suddenly backed a mile away, “Your highness, you really picked up something you shouldn’t have up the mountain! That small child is toxic! His sign is borne of the most ominous star, the Star of Solitude*, destined to bring misfortune and destruction, the kind that evil loves the most. Whoever touches him will have misfortune befall upon them, whoever gets close will lose their lives!”

... Seeing that everyone was avoiding him like he was a poisonous snake, that child was shocked and started thrashing even harder, biting and screaming, “I’m not! I’M NOT!! I’M NOT!!!!”

Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped him around the waist, encircling his small form. A voice came from above his head, “You’re not. I know you’re not. Don’t cry, now. I know you’re not.”

That young child pressed his lips closed tightly, grabbing on to that pair of snow-white sleeves around his waist with a death grip, forced himself to hold back for a long time but in the end he still couldn’t. A stream of tears suddenly rolled down from that round, black eye, and he burst out crying.

Xie Lian embraced him from behind and reiterated firmly, “It not you. It’s not your fault.”

This scene was also paralleled recently in the confession scene in 177, where Xie Lian hugs Hua Cheng from behind to confirm he loves him. But what Hua Cheng fears is being alone because he brings misfortune to the people he loves. He doesn’t want to be alone. Connection, as we’ll see, is vitally important to staying alive and to staying connected to humanity--whether mortal, god, or demon--in TGCF. He even asks Xie Lian in the confession scene not to tell him, because he’s so afraid of being rejected, yet Xie Lian embraces him instead. 

i’m not in pain at all

When Hua Cheng is wondering what to live for, thinking he has nothing, Xie Lian tells him to live for him until he finds another reason to live for himself. This scene again emphasizes the importance of connection and the importance of empathy in connection as well, that a god would speak to a lone, desperate mortal worshipper. Live for their connection. The problem is that Hua Cheng needs to extend some of that love to himself too (like, he’s still drawing himself as exceedingly ugly in his art), but I think that comes through allowing himself to be loved by Xie Lian. So he’s on that path. 

There’s another aspect to the BWX and Hua Cheng foiling that makes me slightly uncomfortable to discuss, but it’s there so let’s discuss it. Hua Cheng’s murals that so panicked Mu Qing and Feng Xin were pretty obviously, er, erotic (the ultimate self-insert real person fanartist; Hua Cheng and Dante could get along). Bai WuXiang is definitely giving off some... creeper vibes. 

The next second, his hair was grabbed, forcibly yanked back then bashed into the ground!

His ears were ringing, his nose and mouth were filled with the astringence of blood, and his head concussed.

It was a while later before Xie Lian felt a hand pull his head out from the shattered ground, and a voice came from above, “So sad, so pitiful.”

Xie Lian choked out a mouthful of blood. White No-Face said, “Every time I meet your highness, you always look like this. Makes one ache. Makes one excited.”

It could just be the translation, but given BWX’s foiling with Hua Cheng, the scene two chapters earlier where Mu Qing and Fen Xin clearly think Hua Cheng is going to harm Xie Lian sexually and Hua Cheng assures him he has no such intentions (not that Xie Lian thought he would), plus what we know of Xie Lian’s utter commitment to abstinence does make me think that Bai WuXiang knows what he’s doing and is doing it to distress Xie Lian. I don’t think MXTX will take it very far (ie I don’t think anything will actually happen in a literal sense), thankfully, but I do think something metaphorically along those lines (ie something humiliating that denies Xie Lian humanity in a sense other than that one, BUT metaphorical is not the same thing) might have happened in the past.

There’s also the fact that Bai WuXiang slamming Xie Lian’s face into the ground and demanding he be like him at the ending of book 3, right before we dive into the past, is a reversal of the scene at the ending of book 1 right before we dive into the past, where Xie Lian slams Qi Rong’s face into the ground because he can’t get him to stop possessing an innocent father. Additionally, in this scene Qi Rong tells Xie Lian something similar to what BWX tells Xie Lian, except Xie Lian is the one in power then:

Xie Lian’s breathing was becoming more laboured, his head dizzy, his body shaking, his hands itching to crush Qi Rong’s skull, but he couldn’t do it. Qi Rong spread his hands, “Hahahaha cousin crown prince, what a failure, what an absolute failure!”

Xie Lian picked him off the ground, raised his fists and rained punch after punch on Qi Rong’s face, yelling with each punch, “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

Yet, the more enraged he got, the happier Qi Rong became. To be able to drag the both of them to the same hell, Qi Rong was filled with rapture, his eyes shone brightly, “See! There’s your true face! Cousin crown prince, who knows you better than me in this world? You might look like a pathetic, drowned dog that anyone can trample now, but I know. You’re still proud on the inside; you couldn’t stand anyone calling you a failure! You must hate me for calling you a failure! Have I stabbed your heart enough to bleed? Hurry! Come! Or are you gonna tell me loudly that this body is innocent, so you won’t kill me in order to spare him? Come! Show me what you’ll do!”

It’s the same sort of temptation, except BWX has the spiritual power on his side whereas Qi Rong didn’t. Kill me, and become like me. If Xie Lian doesn’t give up, if he stands by his morals even though they’re being challenged because honestly his morals are kind of all he has at certain moments, then they themselves will be condemned, as they already know they are. But they want someone to empathize with them, to understand them. Qi Rong spent his childhood looking up to Xie Lian, wanting to be like him, and now he wants Xie Lian to be like him. He’s still a child, despite being an 800-year-old demon. I have hope Qi Rong will be able to grow a bit through being a parental figure for GuZi, I don’t really for BWX because I find him a terrifying baddie whom I love and despise at the same time. 

What sets Xie Lian apart though, the whole reason Qi Rong loved him so much in the first place, the reason Hua Cheng fell in love with him, the reason He Xuan grew close with Shi Qing Xuan, is because Xie Lian can empathize. He has a sense of wonder about the world, and he doesn’t see himself as better than anyone. He’s naive and yes, proud in some ways, but when his priests tried to kick out a child because the child had a bad fortune, he protected that child. He dove off the ceremonial cart to save a falling child. He knows he failed epically to save Xian Le from falling, to save innocents from dying, but not for lack of trying. 

He Xuan also tried to force Shi Qing Xuan and Shi Wu Du to understand his pain in losing all his loved ones. It backfired, and now He Xuan has lost the one person he still had. (I don’t think SQX is dead, but I doubt he is in a good state.) The meta I referenced earlier is entirely about this, and as @beneaththebrim wrote here, the whole Black Water arc “is a tragic mirror of the main plot.”

The faces under Bai WuXiang’s mask could easily be any of these characters, but they aren’t because they’re able to connect currently. Qi Rong has a genuine connection to Xie Lian, as twisted and torn as it is, and is developing one with GuZi. He Xuan is likely finding out that revenge on Shi Wu Du didn’t bring him the peace he wants, didn’t bring his loved ones back, and irreparably hurt the one person who loved him (Shi Qing Xuan). Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, of course, love each other, and through each others’ love, are hopefully starting, ever so slowly, to learn to love and value themselves too (Hua Cheng you don’t value yourself enough). 

Bai WuXiang is likely terrified of facing the reality that he is alone (and if he doesn’t have the human face disease or some remnant thereof since he’s the mastermind behind it and it’s symbolic of society corrupting & also of loneliness, I’ll be shocked). So no matter how many faces he has in actuality, it’s really only his face under that mask, and that’s what he’s terrified of.