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Coming back to this after six months because the translation is finished and I feel up to ANGST.
Maybe /o\
Also, turns out the title is Heaven Official's Blessing, not Heaven's Official Blessings like I've been saying all this time. Oops. *quietly edits tags*
Content Notes for the book in general: consent issues, sexualisation of teenagers, gore, mixed treatment of cross-dressing, self harm (sort of), dead babies, incest subtext, ANGST
And under the cut: SPOILERS for chapters 126-130, and some major spoilers for later parts that I heard about through osmosis.
So I stopped reading this in *checks* April. Not because it got bad, but because I'd hit a happy part and could tell it was going to get VERY ANGSTY, and the translation wasn't finished. But now it is! And from all accounts the main couple get a happy ending! And only MOST of the rest of the cast ends up... dead...
I'm going to start by rereading the chapters I didn't summarise, which gives me a few chapter's grace before anything super bad can happen, and there's like 50 chapters after that before Book 4... which is apparently where the REAL angst starts ahahaha D:
Anyway. I'll assume that like me you've reread the previous summaries. Thanks, past self!
From now on I'm going to try dividing it up like the translation does, into blocks of ten chapters, so I don't lose track of where I'm up to. I'm writing down a bunch of details I skimmed over last time because I ended up super confused.
I've been spoiled for a few things that are revealed later, and will affect my reactions going forward:
First: the bickering underlings Fu Yao and Nan Feng, who've been helping Xie Lian on behalf of his bickering former BFFs Mu Qing and Feng Xin...are actually just Mu Qing and Feng Xin in disguise. Apparently most people figured this out but I had NO IDEA. Let's assume I would have figured it out before whenever the reveal happens >.>
Second: the head god Jun Wu is the evil mastermind behind everything (or at least many things) and has some sort of tragic slashy past with the white masked villain White No Face/White Clothed Calamity/Bai Wu Xiang.
This does not surprise me at ALL, Jun Wu had Distant Mentor Who Is Actually The Villain written all over him.
There was also a couple of reveals in the chapters I've already read, but I'll see if I can keep those a surprise.
So!
In my last summary, I didn't mention the cliffhanger revelation at the end of chapter 125: It wasn't He Xuan/Black Water who caused the tempest that drew everyone to that part of the ocean in the first place, endangering fishermen, revealing He Xuan's base, and ultimately leading to the death of Shi Wu Du.
So who was it??
It feels like someone has been pushing Xie Lian to these places, causing him to reveal hidden conspiracies etc.
I'm not sure who this is, yet. Surely all the Secret Masterminds don't want Xie Lian discovering their secret mastermind plans. Unless it's Jun Wu wanting to undermine the mid-tier seeming-villains in order to promote his boss-tier villainous plan, he IS the one who sent Xie Lian on a bunch of these missions. I doubt it's Hua Cheng, he wants Xie Lian to stay OUT of danger.
Anyway. With Shi Wu Du and Shi Qing Xuan disgraced and dead/missing and thus not answering prayers, their stock in Heaven and on Earth quickly plummets. Barely anyone but Xie Lian and Ling Wen shows up to Shi Wu Du's funeral, and frustrated worshippers start desecrating their temples :( *wonders if there's some specific Chinese social commentary happening here that's going over my head*
Just as Green Goblin is complaining that he feels unwell, Hua Cheng invites Xie Lian for a date in Ghost City. He gives the Green Goblin to some demons to see if they can remove his soul from the man's body, and gives the son Gu Zi to some nice female ghosts to babysit.
Hua Cheng flirts with Xie Lian while practicing calligraphy on the same bittersweet love poem as before.
AWWW it's not letting me copy text any more! I wasn't stealing your translation, translator! I just wanted to copy the cute line Hua Cheng says about how if he likes something his feelings don't change. "The poem stays the same".
BUT THEN! MXTX'S PENCHANT FOR DUBCON INDUCING WORLDBUILDING STRIKES AGAIN!
Hua Cheng clutches his covered eye, and gasps that Xie Lian should get away from him, or he'll...
The ghosts of Ghost City start to all clutch at themselves in pain. Being partly human, Green Goblin isn't as badly affected, and takes the chance to escape, shouting at a crying abandoned Gu Zi that he's a nuisance :( Before Xie Lian can stop Green Goblin, he's grabbed by a glassy eyed Hua Cheng, who whispers "I lied. Don't leave me."
As Green Goblin makes his escape, cackling that he'll bring back Hua Cheng's enemies while he's weakened, Hua Cheng pushes Xie Lian onto the desk, spilling splashes of red ink on their calligraphy, and kisses him, filling Xie Lian with so much magical energy he feels he will burst.
Xie Lian pushes away, and Hua Cheng comes back to himself a little. But Xie Lian realises Hua Cheng's burning with so much energy that he'll be hurt if he has no outlet. So Xie Lian apologises, and gently kisses Hua Cheng (IT'S JUST THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO TRANSFER ENERGY)
Xie Lian does his best to keep everything as platonic as possible, even while the delirious Hua Cheng gets very handsy, but Xie Lian eventually has to admit to himself that he is super into it.
Hua Cheng eventually falls asleep, and Xie Lian pets his equally freaked out sword until it's also calm.
Hua Cheng wakes up, looking around the messed up temple with vague memories of very much wanting to make out with Xie Lian and asks what happened with an intense expression.
Xie Lian: Please don't be mad at me but *cough*...we fought.
Hua Cheng: ...*breath of relief*
But Xie Lian feels like he can't hide his newly awakened feelings, and tells Hua Cheng they should stay apart for a while.
So! The reason all the ghosts got filled with energy is that...Mount Tonglu has reopened!
IT'S TIME FOR A NEW GHOST KING!!
Turns out that how ghost kings are made is that the volcano Mount Tonglu opens and any ghosts/demons who are interested go inside and have a winner-takes-all fight to the death. Whoever is left standing at the end becomes a super powerful Ghost King. The last two ghost kings were Hua Cheng and Black Water, who took about ten years each to kill their way to the top.
Heaven is naturally concerned: a new Ghost King is a major threat. And there'll be millions of energised ghosts gathering and causing trouble before the fight even starts. Already, several ghosts have escaped from Heaven's confinement: the fetus spirit, Xuan Ji (I think that's it's mother?), and one we haven't heard about before: the Brocade Immortal.
So Xie Lian is sent to go track them down with...Qi Ying? Who is that??? Some bratty young god who didn't show up to be given orders? Ah, it's another name for Quan Yi Zhen!
Back at his shrine, the villagers ask where Xie Lian's cute "brother" is and Xie Lian self consciously changes the subject. Lang Ying, meanwhile, is self confident and friendly instead of reserved and shy, and even happily eats Xie Lian's cooking. I totally failed to realise this was because he is Hua Cheng in disguise but it's kind of obvious on a reread, oops.
MXTX note: I thought I made it obvious that Hua Hua swapped himself with Lan Ying, I don't understand why noone noticed _(:3」∠)_
Sorry MXTX >.>
That night, as Xie Lian lies awake pining for Hua Cheng, he notices someone sneak into his shrine, puts something into the donations box, and even brazenly eat the leftover dinner!
...so of course, not being Hua Cheng, the intruder collapses in pain and starts shouting about being poisoned.
It's Quan Yi Zhen!
He's stuffing Xie Lian's donation box with gold bars for helping him out way back during the play performance in heaven.
When he refuses to take them back, Xie Lian silently decides to give them back later indirectly, then cheerfully tells him they've been given the job of hunting down...
The Brocade Immortal:
A brave, kind, and very stupid warrior was on the path to godhood when he fell in love with a girl. She gave him a "robe" which was more like a torso sized pocket, and said "It'll fit if you have no arms, legs or head". So he cheerfully cut them off, and the blood-soaked robe became an evil spirit. Whoever owns it must obey the commands of whoever gave it to them. Since it can change shape, finding it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
And it was heavily guarded in Heaven. Who could have stolen it?
TIME FOR MORE QUASI-SHOTA FANSERVICE
Xie Lian has a bath and "Lan Ying" stares at him for a moment then backs all the way out of the door. A moment later he kicks open the door, picks up the barely conscious Quan Yi Zhen and drags him outside.
Then they hear a woman at the door...offering to exchange old clothes for new! Luckily Xie Lian has taught the villagers to recognise such an obviously evil ploy.
Xie Lian, still in the bath, cheerfully accepts her offer...and gives her "clothes" including his sentient bandage, which wraps her up. She is revealed as a "Half Maquillage Woman", a low level monster with the lower face of a young woman and the upper face of an old one. She says she bought the brocade in Ghost City.
Quan Yi Zhen takes one look and declares it a fake. He's seen the much more evil original.
Ling Wen tells Xie Lian about Quan Yi Zhen's backstory: as a street urchin he was taken in by Yin Yu, the then head disciple of their sect. They both ascended, and shared the duties of Martial God Of The West as close friends.
Quan Yi Zhen is asocial and ignored everyone except Yin Yu, including his followers, and didn't even bother hiring underlings. Yet he was so powerful his sphere of influence grew and grew, leaving behind his former senior.
And so one year, Yin Yu gave Quan Yi Zhen a gift of armour for his birthday...which was really the Brocade Immortal. Yin Yu told Quan Yi Zhen to cut off his own head, and he nearly did it.
Naturally Yin Yu was banished from Heaven. Yet Quan Yi Zhen gets angry when people act like Yin Yu is a villain. Xie Lian wonders if there's more to the story and Ling Wen says "Eh, who knows, who cares".
And then Ling Wen gets back to her reason for calling: there are twenty eight other ghosts selling what sounds like the Brocade Immortal out there. And Xie Lian has to check every single one.
Coming back to this after six months because the translation is finished and I feel up to ANGST.
Maybe /o\
Also, turns out the title is Heaven Official's Blessing, not Heaven's Official Blessings like I've been saying all this time. Oops. *quietly edits tags*
Content Notes for the book in general: consent issues, sexualisation of teenagers, gore, mixed treatment of cross-dressing, self harm (sort of), dead babies, incest subtext, ANGST
And under the cut: SPOILERS for chapters 126-130, and some major spoilers for later parts that I heard about through osmosis.
So I stopped reading this in *checks* April. Not because it got bad, but because I'd hit a happy part and could tell it was going to get VERY ANGSTY, and the translation wasn't finished. But now it is! And from all accounts the main couple get a happy ending! And only MOST of the rest of the cast ends up... dead...
I'm going to start by rereading the chapters I didn't summarise, which gives me a few chapter's grace before anything super bad can happen, and there's like 50 chapters after that before Book 4... which is apparently where the REAL angst starts ahahaha D:
Anyway. I'll assume that like me you've reread the previous summaries. Thanks, past self!
From now on I'm going to try dividing it up like the translation does, into blocks of ten chapters, so I don't lose track of where I'm up to. I'm writing down a bunch of details I skimmed over last time because I ended up super confused.
I've been spoiled for a few things that are revealed later, and will affect my reactions going forward:
First: the bickering underlings Fu Yao and Nan Feng, who've been helping Xie Lian on behalf of his bickering former BFFs Mu Qing and Feng Xin...are actually just Mu Qing and Feng Xin in disguise. Apparently most people figured this out but I had NO IDEA. Let's assume I would have figured it out before whenever the reveal happens >.>
Second: the head god Jun Wu is the evil mastermind behind everything (or at least many things) and has some sort of tragic slashy past with the white masked villain White No Face/White Clothed Calamity/Bai Wu Xiang.
This does not surprise me at ALL, Jun Wu had Distant Mentor Who Is Actually The Villain written all over him.
There was also a couple of reveals in the chapters I've already read, but I'll see if I can keep those a surprise.
So!
In my last summary, I didn't mention the cliffhanger revelation at the end of chapter 125: It wasn't He Xuan/Black Water who caused the tempest that drew everyone to that part of the ocean in the first place, endangering fishermen, revealing He Xuan's base, and ultimately leading to the death of Shi Wu Du.
So who was it??
It feels like someone has been pushing Xie Lian to these places, causing him to reveal hidden conspiracies etc.
I'm not sure who this is, yet. Surely all the Secret Masterminds don't want Xie Lian discovering their secret mastermind plans. Unless it's Jun Wu wanting to undermine the mid-tier seeming-villains in order to promote his boss-tier villainous plan, he IS the one who sent Xie Lian on a bunch of these missions. I doubt it's Hua Cheng, he wants Xie Lian to stay OUT of danger.
Anyway. With Shi Wu Du and Shi Qing Xuan disgraced and dead/missing and thus not answering prayers, their stock in Heaven and on Earth quickly plummets. Barely anyone but Xie Lian and Ling Wen shows up to Shi Wu Du's funeral, and frustrated worshippers start desecrating their temples :( *wonders if there's some specific Chinese social commentary happening here that's going over my head*
Just as Green Goblin is complaining that he feels unwell, Hua Cheng invites Xie Lian for a date in Ghost City. He gives the Green Goblin to some demons to see if they can remove his soul from the man's body, and gives the son Gu Zi to some nice female ghosts to babysit.
Hua Cheng flirts with Xie Lian while practicing calligraphy on the same bittersweet love poem as before.
AWWW it's not letting me copy text any more! I wasn't stealing your translation, translator! I just wanted to copy the cute line Hua Cheng says about how if he likes something his feelings don't change. "The poem stays the same".
BUT THEN! MXTX'S PENCHANT FOR DUBCON INDUCING WORLDBUILDING STRIKES AGAIN!
Hua Cheng clutches his covered eye, and gasps that Xie Lian should get away from him, or he'll...
The ghosts of Ghost City start to all clutch at themselves in pain. Being partly human, Green Goblin isn't as badly affected, and takes the chance to escape, shouting at a crying abandoned Gu Zi that he's a nuisance :( Before Xie Lian can stop Green Goblin, he's grabbed by a glassy eyed Hua Cheng, who whispers "I lied. Don't leave me."
As Green Goblin makes his escape, cackling that he'll bring back Hua Cheng's enemies while he's weakened, Hua Cheng pushes Xie Lian onto the desk, spilling splashes of red ink on their calligraphy, and kisses him, filling Xie Lian with so much magical energy he feels he will burst.
Xie Lian pushes away, and Hua Cheng comes back to himself a little. But Xie Lian realises Hua Cheng's burning with so much energy that he'll be hurt if he has no outlet. So Xie Lian apologises, and gently kisses Hua Cheng (IT'S JUST THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO TRANSFER ENERGY)
Xie Lian does his best to keep everything as platonic as possible, even while the delirious Hua Cheng gets very handsy, but Xie Lian eventually has to admit to himself that he is super into it.
Hua Cheng eventually falls asleep, and Xie Lian pets his equally freaked out sword until it's also calm.
Hua Cheng wakes up, looking around the messed up temple with vague memories of very much wanting to make out with Xie Lian and asks what happened with an intense expression.
Xie Lian: Please don't be mad at me but *cough*...we fought.
Hua Cheng: ...*breath of relief*
But Xie Lian feels like he can't hide his newly awakened feelings, and tells Hua Cheng they should stay apart for a while.
So! The reason all the ghosts got filled with energy is that...Mount Tonglu has reopened!
IT'S TIME FOR A NEW GHOST KING!!
Turns out that how ghost kings are made is that the volcano Mount Tonglu opens and any ghosts/demons who are interested go inside and have a winner-takes-all fight to the death. Whoever is left standing at the end becomes a super powerful Ghost King. The last two ghost kings were Hua Cheng and Black Water, who took about ten years each to kill their way to the top.
Heaven is naturally concerned: a new Ghost King is a major threat. And there'll be millions of energised ghosts gathering and causing trouble before the fight even starts. Already, several ghosts have escaped from Heaven's confinement: the fetus spirit, Xuan Ji (I think that's it's mother?), and one we haven't heard about before: the Brocade Immortal.
So Xie Lian is sent to go track them down with...Qi Ying? Who is that??? Some bratty young god who didn't show up to be given orders? Ah, it's another name for Quan Yi Zhen!
Back at his shrine, the villagers ask where Xie Lian's cute "brother" is and Xie Lian self consciously changes the subject. Lang Ying, meanwhile, is self confident and friendly instead of reserved and shy, and even happily eats Xie Lian's cooking. I totally failed to realise this was because he is Hua Cheng in disguise but it's kind of obvious on a reread, oops.
MXTX note: I thought I made it obvious that Hua Hua swapped himself with Lan Ying, I don't understand why noone noticed _(:3」∠)_
Sorry MXTX >.>
That night, as Xie Lian lies awake pining for Hua Cheng, he notices someone sneak into his shrine, puts something into the donations box, and even brazenly eat the leftover dinner!
...so of course, not being Hua Cheng, the intruder collapses in pain and starts shouting about being poisoned.
It's Quan Yi Zhen!
He's stuffing Xie Lian's donation box with gold bars for helping him out way back during the play performance in heaven.
When he refuses to take them back, Xie Lian silently decides to give them back later indirectly, then cheerfully tells him they've been given the job of hunting down...
The Brocade Immortal:
A brave, kind, and very stupid warrior was on the path to godhood when he fell in love with a girl. She gave him a "robe" which was more like a torso sized pocket, and said "It'll fit if you have no arms, legs or head". So he cheerfully cut them off, and the blood-soaked robe became an evil spirit. Whoever owns it must obey the commands of whoever gave it to them. Since it can change shape, finding it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
And it was heavily guarded in Heaven. Who could have stolen it?
TIME FOR MORE QUASI-SHOTA FANSERVICE
Xie Lian has a bath and "Lan Ying" stares at him for a moment then backs all the way out of the door. A moment later he kicks open the door, picks up the barely conscious Quan Yi Zhen and drags him outside.
Then they hear a woman at the door...offering to exchange old clothes for new! Luckily Xie Lian has taught the villagers to recognise such an obviously evil ploy.
Xie Lian, still in the bath, cheerfully accepts her offer...and gives her "clothes" including his sentient bandage, which wraps her up. She is revealed as a "Half Maquillage Woman", a low level monster with the lower face of a young woman and the upper face of an old one. She says she bought the brocade in Ghost City.
Quan Yi Zhen takes one look and declares it a fake. He's seen the much more evil original.
Ling Wen tells Xie Lian about Quan Yi Zhen's backstory: as a street urchin he was taken in by Yin Yu, the then head disciple of their sect. They both ascended, and shared the duties of Martial God Of The West as close friends.
Quan Yi Zhen is asocial and ignored everyone except Yin Yu, including his followers, and didn't even bother hiring underlings. Yet he was so powerful his sphere of influence grew and grew, leaving behind his former senior.
And so one year, Yin Yu gave Quan Yi Zhen a gift of armour for his birthday...which was really the Brocade Immortal. Yin Yu told Quan Yi Zhen to cut off his own head, and he nearly did it.
Naturally Yin Yu was banished from Heaven. Yet Quan Yi Zhen gets angry when people act like Yin Yu is a villain. Xie Lian wonders if there's more to the story and Ling Wen says "Eh, who knows, who cares".
And then Ling Wen gets back to her reason for calling: there are twenty eight other ghosts selling what sounds like the Brocade Immortal out there. And Xie Lian has to check every single one.
