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Content Notes for the book in general: consent issues, sexualisation of children, gore, mixed treatment of cross-dressing, suicide, child harm, incest subtext, emotional abuse, ANGST
Time to finally understand wtf has been going on!
Also: I've added "emotional abuse" to the content notes, I should have added it ages ago, sorry about that! It's no worse here than before.
Under the cut: SPOILERS for chapters 211-220.
The mysterious visitor is...Yin Yu! With the Earth Master's shovel! He's so nondescript that nobody thought to search him for weapons.
For a moment Xie Lian is afraid, and steps back. He realises this is Shi Qing Xuan's reaction to seeing the shovel ;_;
SPEAKING OF WHICH I remembered seeing a file marked SPOILERS: TGCF TIMELINE in the translation account, so just checked it out. I won't go into the spoilery parts, but the main surprise for me isn't a spoiler at all, just a methodical piecing together of all the facts we know about when all the various gods ascended etc. And if the person who worked out the timeline is right, way more of the main cast are around the same age as Xie Lian than I thought.
To summarise:
Obviously Jun Wu is the oldest, about 2000 years older than everyone else (OMG HE'S JESUS LOL)
Ling Wen is the next oldest. It's not clear to me how long she'd been an unaging junior official before Xie Lian ascended, it could have been anything from a few years to centuries. I lean towards like...5-50 years.
Xie Lian, Mu Qing, Feng Xin, Jian Lan, and Green Goblin are all around the same age, with Hua Cheng about seven years younger than Xie Lian.
Shi Wu Du ascended when Xie Lian was 30, and was in his late teens at the time so he's slightly younger than Hua Cheng. Pei Ming and Ling Wen ascended around that time too, which explains how they all became such close friends, and means Pei Ming is around the same age as Xie Lian as well. And since Rain Master and Xuan Ji knew Pei Ming as similarly aged humans, they join the around-Xie-Lian's-age club.
Shi Qing Xuan ascended a few years after that at SIXTEEN omg BABY. I kinda knew that already, but got thrown off by them making their password "Shi Qing Xuan is 26". But that's exactly what a shapechanging 16 year old surrounded by adults would do. I hope they got to keep their adult body as a mortalif only for shipping purposes.
WAIT. But I think Shi Qing Xuan became immortal when Shi Wu Du acescended and brought them to the lower court, which was when Shi Qing Xuan was THIRTEEN omg baby teenager stuck around a bunch of stuffy grownups. *imagines Ling Wen being stuck with baby-sitting as one of the few women in the lower court and hating it, meanwhile Shi Qing Xuan is just OMG WE CAN SWITCH GENDERS SHOW ME HOW??? :D*
Also does that mean He Xuan was 16 when he died? BABY SERIAL KILLER WOOBIE ;_; It's funny to think he's only 10 years younger than Hua Cheng but took another two hundred years to become a demon king.
Cuo Cuo is about 25 years younger than Xie Lian etc, making him about 8 years younger than Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan (who were born when Xie Lian was 17 and had just become a god). I wonder if Cuo Cuo could choose to look like an adult and just chooses not to, or if he doesn't have the right sort of mind.
Then there's a big gap. Lang Qian Qiu and the death of the YongAn royal family was about 500 years later.
Afaict there's no real known date for Yin Yu and Quan Yi Zhen ascending but it's put here on the timeline, and they were about 28 and 19 respectively.
100 years after Lang Qian Qiu, there's the mess with Ban Yue, Pei Su, and Kei Mo, so they're the youngest members of the cast. Despite being several hundred years old, lol.
EDIT: Ok after rereading some stuff I am not entirely convinced by this timeline. I think Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan were more like 18 when they died/ascended, and they and Shi Wu Du are quite a lot younger than Xie Lian etc.
Also, despite canon, I still think of Yin Yu and Pei Ming as looking 35-40, they just have that vibe.
Anyway. Yin Yu says he's going to gather up the other gods, and is vague about who he's going after first or why he doesn't want Xie Lian to come. Hua Cheng is not at all vague about why he thinks they should let the other gods hang, though Shi Qing Xuan censors it a little.
Xie Lian takes a nap in the tunnel, and wakes alone. And then his gut says danger is approaching, and a cold shiver goes down his spine. Hua Cheng wants Xie Lian to jump into Shi Qing Xuan's body which...ok, yes, Xie Lian's consciousness would be safer but he'd plausibly be stuck permanently in a mortal body with another person living in it? Shi Quin Xuan doesn't object but he also says Hua Cheng is looking especially scary when he makes the suggestion.
And then Xie Lian feels danger ahead as well, and decides "Forward and back makes no difference, so whatever!" and crawls forward.
Xie Lian: I've hit a fork in the road. Can you ask San Lang to pick left or right?
Shi Qing Xuan: He says neither.
Xie Lian: Then Qing Xuan, you pick one. You have a fifty percent chance of making the better decision, while I...
Shi Qing Xuan: I get it. Hmmmm........left!
(Aw, he dropped the surname! In another world I would ship these two)
After much crawling, they end up where they started. Someone has dug a giant circle.
Shi Qing Xuan: I guess I chose the wrong choice after all.
Xie Lian: ...no, I suspect whatever's on the right is worse.
And then they hear something crawling behind them.
Shi Qing Xuan: HAHAHAHAHA ISN'T THIS EXCITING D: D:
They hit another fork in the road, and then another. Shi Qing Xuan shouts LEFT!RIGHT!LEFT! in a panic until they end up stuck in a dead end. And then Xie Lian feels someone placing a hand on his head, and everything goes black.
He wakes tied to a chair by his bandage RuoYe, who is miserable about being tied into such tight knots. And his connection to Shi Qing Xuan has been cut off.
Jun Wu: My dear Xie Lian you are far too mischievous :)
Nnnng this guy was creepy enough as his separate personas but the combination of the two is just.../o\
Xie Lian sees the fetus spirit watching maliciously from his feet and realises Jun Wu set up the whole labyrinth full of creepy crawly things etc just to fuck with Xie Lian's head.
Xie Lian: You have a despicable hobby
Jun Wu: But now Xian Le is much braver than before :)
Knowing Jun Wu was also a Crown Prince makes him referring to Xie Lian as his country name interesting, like he's defining Xie Lian as a Prince, and also like...the personification of his people or something.
He sets Xie Lian in front of avideo monitor enchanted mirror.
(side note I was about to comment on how MXTX incorporates mobile phones/chat rooms etc in her ancient fantasy more naturally than many writers of contemporary fiction, then remembered she's young enough to have grown up with them as a child)
Oh godddd I've been putting off describing this part. I just...
Jun Wu goes to visit Yin Yu and Quan Yi Zhen. Because, obviously, that's who Yin Yu left to rescue first.
Quan Yi Zhen, already beaten up from some fight we didn't see, goes on the attack. Jun Wu easily knocks him to the ground then smiles at Yin Yu. "No need to be on guard, it's not like it makes any difference. Why not relax, I'm not sure you and I have ever had a chance to chat :)"
Jun Wu talks about how Yin Yu was unfairly outshone by Quan Yi Zhen and forced to degrade himself working for a ghost and wouldn't it be nice if he could return to the Upper Court.
Oh gosh apparently Hua Cheng helped Yin Yu pacify and send of Yin Yu's old bff Jian Yu after he died in banishment and became a resentful ghost /o\
Jun Wu: You are so much more mature and wise than Quan Yi Zhen, if you had his natural talent you would achieve so much more.
Yin Yu: My Lord, 'if's are meaningless, he is- *starts glowing* AHHHHH WHERE DID THIS COME FROM I WAS NEVER THIS STRONG.
Jun Wu: Everything can be swapped. Even spiritual power :) Everyone will forget him and remember you. My new right hand.
Yin Yu: Can he steal them back? And ...will he die?
Jun Wu: He can only take them back if you give them willingly. And it will only hurt a little, but who hasn't suffered in this world :)
And so...Yin Yu agrees. Quan Yi Zhen writhes in pain while Yin Yu blows out a wall with more power than he has ever experienced in his life.
And then he creates a ring of shining light around Jun Wu, trapping him, and puts Quan Yi Zhen's comatose body on his back.
Jun Wu: Classy. But can you really say you don't hate him?
Yin Yu: OF COURSE I HATE HIM. BUT SO WHAT? THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WANT HIM TO SUFFER. And of course I want to return to the heavens! But if I can't do it on my own, I want to at least be able to admit I can't do it. ADMITTING I CAN'T COMPARE IS NOT THAT HARD.
Quan Yi Zhen: I'm so sorry ;_;
Yin Yu: Shut up! Don't apologise, you won't understand me either way.
Jun Wu: Exhilarating. You and Xie Lian must get along great.
Yin Yu: *urk*
Xie Lian: ????? D:
Jun Wu: I guessed you'd be like this. And that's why I didn't remove your cursed shackle.
The shackle on Yin Yu's arm has shrunk down so small it looks like his wrist will break, and the skin around it is going white, as if the shackle is sucking all his blood D: D:
I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE SHACKLES WERE CREEPY BUT AHHHH
A little while later Jun Wu comes in, holding a dark red band. He pats Xie Lian on the head and says "Go say goodbye to your little friend".
Yin Yu lays, white and shrivelled, in the arms of Quan Yi Zhen.
Quan Yi Zhen: I'M SO SORRY ALL I KNOW HOW TO DO IS FIGHT ;_;
Yin Yu: I always knew. Yi Zhen is a genius, and I'm just a commoner. I knew, but I couldn't accept it. Afterwards, I never let myself wonder why I told him to die.
Xie Lian hugs him. "It's alright. Live for a few more hundred years and you'll know that none of that really matters. Who hasn't had such thoughts? I thought about massacring everyone who ever wronged me, and I nearly did it. But yet I still shamelessly live on. You didn't actually do anything, in the end, and that's what matters."
Yin Yu: But in the end...it's so unfair. If I was already destined to be unremarkable, then at the very least...I wanted to be kind. But even in this moment, knowing that I'm dying for Yi Zhen, this little dummy... I can't even let go and die with a heart free of resentment and regret.
Xie Lian: You've worked so hard, and done much, much better than most people.
Yin Yu: Ha. Better than most people, huh? But, I wanted to be a god...
Xie Lian: Your Highness, there is no god in this world.
But Yin Yu is already dead.
;_;
I'm not sure if I cried the first time I read this but I am definitely crying now.
The tragic arcs in this book have felt contrived to me, characters suffer such an implausibly melodramatic sequence of awful events one after the other that it feels unreal, and undercuts the sense that anyone can be driven to a dark place, and there's a bit too much sudden snapping from Good to Bad. But what does really work for me is the depiction of just being...old and tired and unfixably damaged by the things you've done and thought and experienced, and then having to keep going anyway.
It suddenly occurs to Xie Lian that if Jun Wu kept the cursed shackle, maybe it contains something useful. Like Yin Yu's soul. He marches to the Martial Hall and shouts at Jin Wu. "HE WAS NOTHING TO YOU WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?"
Jun Wu: It made you angry, which is very useful. But your tone is rather disrespectful.
And then Xie Lian falls to his knees, clutching his at the cursed shackle tightening around his neck, unable to breathe. Just like Guoshi did earlier.
Suddenly it occurs to him that before, when Guoshi was "choking" Xie Lian, he might actually have been trying to remove the cursed shackle.
Xie Lian is slowly allowed to breathe again. He puts his hand to his throat, and feels the shackle. But he feels something else: a ring on a silver chain that Hua Cheng gave him back in book one that I probably forgot to mention until now, oops.
He hears Jun Wu on the phone, smoothly making excuses about why Heaven is in lockdown, but saying whoever it is can come visit if they want.
Jun Wu refuses to explain, but tells Xie Lian to act as his right hand. "Don't bother with any silly tricks, I know you too well." He plays absently with the blood soaked shackle. "You said it yourself, Yin Yu was insignificant. All heavenly officials are insignificant to me. You understand what will happen is you expose anything. Now, tidy yourself up."
Who has Jun Wu spooked enough to try so hard to look good?
Rain Master :D
She's says she's come to help out in the capital, and has brought gifts. Jun Wu makes Xie Lian collect them from her attendant, and he freezes for a moment, unable to think of anything useful to say.
The attendant squeezes his hand, and just for a moment a smile twinkles in his eyes.
Naturally Jun Wu insists on keeping all the gifts. Xie Lian goes back to his Palace and there's the attendant...who quickly transforms himself into Hua Cheng.
Xie Lian glomps him so forcefully that Hua Cheng is forced back a few steps.
(Yes, the translation says 'glomp'. I guess no other English word captures the nuance of the original Chinese lol)
Hua Cheng reassures Xie Lian that he's made sure Jun Wu won't notice him missing from the capital, and explains that Rain Master is the only heavenly official in charge of agriculture. If Jun Wu messes with her before finding a decent replacement, there would be famine etc, which would undermine people's belief in him. So she's fairly safe, for now, especially since she's turned out to be a surprisingly good liar.
They sneak out across the roofs of Heaven, as Hua Cheng fills the air with invisible butterflies to spy on everything for him.
The nearly run into Cuo Cuo, who is also crawling along the roofs on his own business.
Jian Lian: Don't run around, this is a scary place! Wait, what are you eating?? Ew! That's for poor people and silly gods!
It's a radish. Rain Master's gift was vegetables, and Jun Wu threw it to his minion.
Cuo Cuo runs with the radish in his mouth...to the Palace of Feng Xin, where he gleefully spits it into the face of his father then screeches and attaches himself once again to Feng Xin's arm with his teeth.
Feng Xin: WHAT THE HELL? ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A BEATING?
Jiang Lan: WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO BEAT HIM?! If you hadn't slacked off as a father would your own son have been dug from his mother's womb and made into something like this? HE'S THE HELL YOU GAVE LIFE TO.
Feng Xin: But you're the one who told me to get lost...
Jiang Lan: You come to this bitch's side every day gloomy, you think I didn't know you were just too embarrassed to leave? You could never have redeemed my price-tag, having to split every penny and pay your respect to your Crown Prince, you think I wanted to add to your burdens?
Feng Xin: I would have kept my promise...
Jiang Lan: What did you ever give me? A belt you wouldn't let me sell? A protection charm that only brought bad luck? You had less and less money and more and more temper, what else was I going to do? TORMENT YOU UNTIL YOU HATED ME? UNTIL YOU WERE DEAD??
Xie Lian, the Crown Prince, and god of the protection charm: :(
Feng Xin: ...but I have a duty.
Jiang Lan: No need. I know you're disgusted by your son. As if you'd ever recognise him as your son.
Feng Xin: I...
Jiang Lan: DON'T BOTHER. You're a prisoner right now. Even if you were willing, I might not be.
And then she storms off, and Feng Xin is left alone.
Hua Cheng says that Jun Wu is interrogating Mu Qing, but his butterflies can't enter the martial hall to hear what's going on. Will the same thing happen to him as happened to Yin Yu?
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng move on, to Guoshi's prison: the palace of Ling Wen.
With the brocade immortal on she's unstoppable. But wearing something that evil all the time would be draining, especially since she was forced to maintain a male form. They wait until they see her leave in female form.
Xie Lian is embarrassed to be in the personal room of a female official, but it's so plain and unisex that he feels better.
And of course, she's hidden the black robe of the Brocade Immortal...in a box of plain black robes.
Since the Brocade Immortal doesn't seem to work on Hua Cheng, Xie Lian tries them on. Time to see if Hua Cheng can mind control him!
Hua Cheng: Let's borrow some spiritual powers ;)
Xie Lian: IT'S NOT THIS ONE.
Hua Cheng: What a pity.
Xie Lian: Be more serious! Ask anything else!
Hua Cheng: Don't borrow some spiritual powers :)
Xie Lian: NOT THIS ONE EITHER.
Hua Cheng: You haven't proved that.
Xie Lian: >:( *kiss* >:(
Hua Cheng: :)
But none of them work, so Xie Lian puts back on his white cultivator robe and sighs. Are they going to have to steal the whole box?
And then Ling Wen comes in. Before she can phone Jung Wu, Hua Cheng slams the door shut and casts a small magic shield around the room.
Xie Lian: As you see, we have the Brocade Immortal in our hands. Don't be reckless, unless you want us to set it on fire.
Ling Wen: It's not in your hands. You're wearing it :)
Hua Cheng quickly searches the black robes...and there hidden at the bottom is Xie Lian's original white robe. The Brocade Immortal tricked them.
Xie Lian: That's more cunning than I'd have expected.
Ling Wen: Yes, it was my idea. So really, it's as if I'm the one who made Your Highness wear this robe :)
Xie Lian: Perhaps it doesn't work on me.
Ling Wen: I won't know until I've tried- Your Highness, from now on you can't attack me. Nod if you understand.
And then...he feels himself nod.
Ling Wen: Hua Chengzhu, I suggest you not waste your time trying to think of ways to catch me off guard. Your Highness: if Hua Chengzhu is to attack me, or do any harm to me, then you will attack him. Now, Hua Chengzhu, will you please remove the ward?
(She's so terrible and I love her)
Hua Cheng just smirks, and then Ling Wen's eyes open and she opens her mouth...but no sound comes out. Hua Cheng sent a butterfly to the back of her neck and cast a spell to stop her from being able speak.
Ling Wen just gives him a significant look and waits for Xie Lian to strike. A moment later Xie Lian finds himself with his hand upon Hua Cheng's heart, having just landed a blow that Hua Cheng made no attempt to dodge. And now, the attack complete, Xie Lian is free.
Xie Lian: Are you ok? I hit really hard D:
Hua Cheng: Gege is indeed incredible, what a beautiful blow :)
Hua Cheng: If it wasn't for those things on your body, perhaps not even Jun Wu would be your match. You had a chance to remove them, why didn't you?
Xie Lian: Maybe...it was to remind me of some things. But don't change the subject, why did you take the blow?
Hua Cheng: You're in no position to lecture me. 'Why use other ways when I can just take a beating' is your bad influence on me.
Hua Cheng turns Ling Wen into a serious looking blue daruma doll. Xie Lian decides to keep wearing the Brocade Immortal which seem like a very bad idea to me but what do I know.
They hear Guoshi shouting...and find him sitting comfortably in a side room, playing cards with little magic paper people he must have made himself.
Xie Lian is overcome with nostalgia for all the times he saw Guoshi playing cards in his youth.
AND NOW
IT'S TIME
FOR A BIG OLD EXPOSITION DUMP WITH MASTER GUOSHI
Unlike MXTX I don't have to try and make this flow like an actual conversation, though tbh she didn't try very hard.
So! Guoshi is, despite all the evidence, basically a good guy.
2000 years ago, everything was great. Jun Wu was the glorious crown prince of WuYong, far greater than even Xie Lian in his time. And Guoshi was one of his loyal deputies.
But after Jun Wu ascended, he saw a vision of WuYong's destruction due to the volcano that became the Kiln. While he tried to come up with a peaceful solution, the WuYong generals "created more land" by massacring the inhabitants of nearby countries. Jun Wu got angry and stopped them, which made everyone angry with him.
He said: be patient. I will build a bridge to Heaven. "We believed in him. Or rather, we would do our utmost to support him no matter what." (I originally thought it was a metaphor, but no! Actual literal physical bridge!)
The other heavenly officials were massively opposed. Jun Wu was too busy to answer prayers, so they picked up the slack, stealing away all his believers, and thus the source of his power.
Three years later the volcano erupted. Everyone rushed onto the bridge, and Guoshi watched Jun Wu grow pale, struggle...and fail. The bridge collapsed, dropping millions into the flames, leaving millions more to die in ash and lava.
The remaining people went mad, setting fire to his temples, using blades to pierce his heart until it was mush, cursing him as useless trash. Gods aren't supposed to fail.
He asked heaven: why didn't you help?
The only answer they gave was banishment.
"We told him he could definitely ascend again, but it was too difficult. I'm sure you understand."
He tried to help his people from the ground, but the heavenly officials weren't done: they wouldn't stop the volcano, but they would offer small pieces of aid, just enough to gain worship and make Jun Wu look useless and weak.
Guoshi began to think it would have better not to tell anyone about the volcano, and only grant blessings after it came. Then Jun Wu would be receiving tears of gratitude instead of hatred.
As in Book 2, something about this kind of arc rubs me massively the wrong way, but anyway.
Jun Wu became more and more sombre. And one day he came to his friends saying he'd found a way to make the volcano stop.
By sacrificing the living.
They all objected- this was even worse than the war the Prince put a stop to! The others got aggressively angry, and stormed out. Only Guoshi was left by Jun Wu's side, heartbroken to see him so alone.
Jun Wu didn't mention human sacrifice again. Instead the two of them endured thrown rocks and jeers to perform services at the volcano to try and calm it down.
And then Jun Wu started to cover his face, saying he'd gotten burned. His personality changed, sometimes friendly, sometimes suddenly angry. One day he smashed all the mirrors.
All of a sudden, the volcano calmed down. The people cheered. But Guoshi began to hear voices in the night that sounded like his friends. His friends who noone had seen since the day they walked out.
He followed the voices to Jun Wu's room. And there, under Jun Wu's mask...Guoshi saw the faces of his three friends, surrounded by gashes where Jun Wu had tried and failed to cut them out. And when they saw Guoshi, they began to scream. RUN AWAY. HIS HIGHNESS HAS GONE MAD.
After storming out, they went back to check on Jun Wu, and found him throwing hundreds of people into the Kiln. When his friends tried to stop him, he killed them, and threw them in as well. And so they became resentful sprits, and attached themselves to his body, nagging him in rage every day to stop.
Guoshi is horrified. And before he can leave, he feels Jun Wu's hand upon his head.
Jun Wu: Don't be afraid. As long as you don't betray me like they did, nothing will change.
But Guoshi doesn't even need to say it. Jun Wu has had to learn to read expressions very well.
Jun Wu: It's okay. I expected it. No one would stay with me after I've become this. I understand now, I've always been alone. I DON'T NEED ANYONE.
He nearly kills Guoshi, but then lets him go, crying, and tells him to leave.
Guoshi ran. And the next time the volcano erupted, the whole country of WuYong was destroyed.
He made himself three simulcra of his friends, and played cards with them, ignoring the world. The gods in heaven changed and he didn't notice or care.
And then one day he heard of a Crown Prince born under the Ominous Star. And so Guoshi made himself look a little older and headed to XianLe to become the Guoshi with his 'friends'. And then, in this role, he talked to the new Emperor of Heaven...and recognised him.
But the faces had vanished, and Jun Wu had started a new life, so Guoshi pretended not to recognise him. Unfortunately, like Guoshi, Jun Wu saw himself in the young Prince Xie Lian.
Hua Cheng: They're not alike at all >:|
Jun Wu was delighted with Xie Lian, and wanted to encourage him to ascend. But Guoshi had a bad feeling.
Xie Lian hadn't wanted to believe that Jun Wu's affection for him had all been a lie. But hearing that it was real created complicated feelings.
The turning point was Xie Lian's ascension, which was described way back in Chapter 1.
An angry warrior spirit asked everyone "Where is this? Who am I? What will you do now?" and killed them when it didn't like their answers.
Xian Lie: This is the human realm
Ghost: This is the abyss
So Xie Lian fought the ghost, and won. But afterwards he planted a tree, and scattered soil to escort the ghost to the next life, saying "Body in the abyss, but heart in paradise".
Jun Wu, who was nearby, heard this and said "This child's future is limitless, impossible to measure".
And then came the drought, and the human face disease. At first Guoshi thought White No-Face was borne of nature, that the heavens wanted to punish XianLe.
Which I mean, they did, but he's obviously talking about a higher order above Jun Wu/The Emperor of Heaven, like laws of metaphysics/Fate. Do these have personifications/sentience too? My understanding of Chinese religion mostly comes from this, Monkey, and anime. HMM ok based on a skim of wikipedia there's a complex mix of ascended humans, animist spirits, a natural order, Buddhist reincarnation etc. I mean this is a fantasy world anyway, but there's enough references to things like Buddha and Daoism that it seems intended to be similar to Ancient China theologically.
Anyway.
Guoshi realised the 'deaths' that started the civil war were magic fake bodies, using a technique only he and Jun Wu knew.
(Why not use real bodies? Jun Wu is hardly unwilling to kill people. But maybe it worked better that way, I forget the specifics)
Guoshi confronted Jun Wu, and he said he wanted Xie Lian to become his perfect heir. The only one who could understand him, and would never betray him.
They fight, and Jun Wu would have killed him, but the three old friends come out, having been repressed with spiritual powers.
Guoshi ran, and returned to what remained of WuYong. He found the remains of his friends spirits, their ashes mixed with the lava to become mountain spirits.
They explain the Jun Wu killed off the previous gods one by one. And then he faked himself a new human identity, and ascended to his new heaven, using the bones of the old gods as the foundation.
And whenever the anger and resentment within him got too strong, he would go to the Kiln, which now recognised him as it's master. He'd use the millions of souls of WuYong's dead to forge monsters, like the Reverend of Empty Words. The mountain spirits tried to destroy them before they could get out of what was now Mount TongLu, and Guoshi hunted down any that got into the outside world.
Jun Wu has spent the last 2000 years actively destroying the memory of WuYong and murdering anyone who openly defies him, so Guoshi has had to work subtly and in secret. He's the one who left the murals, wanting to preserve the history but knowing that if he straight up told people Jun Wu would kill them, and him.
He was the fortune teller who tried to help Shi Qing Xuan's parents save them from the Reverend of Empty Words. Apparently it went after Shi Wu Du first, but he was too vicious and hard to scare, so it moved to the common but rich little brother.
Guoshi: But far stronger was a clone Jun Wu made of himself. That was the spirit you defeated when you ascended, and when you said "Body in abyss, heart in paradise" he took it as a jab. That was the turning point in his attitude to you.
Guoshi: The Kiln also cursed humans, dispelling it's accumulated misfortunes. For example, do you remember that child you saved, that I said was a Star of Solitude, covered in bad luck that you should avoid?
Xie Lian, looking at Hua Cheng: Mmmm...
Hua Cheng: :)
Guoshi: He was the sort whose fortune was always going to be either the best or the worst. But he absorbed all those misfortune when he was born, which is how he became so terrifying! The parents of such a child would either die or abandon him. He would suffer endless abuse, never make it past 18, and everyone around him would suffer misfortune. That's why I told you to get rid of him, not to-
Xie Lian: Please stop D:
Gusohi: Fine. It's just an example to show how scary the Kiln is.
Hua Cheng: *chuckle* It's not as scary as it seems. But Guoshi really is quite accurate in his readings :)
Me and Xie Lian: D: D:
Hua Cheng was only 18 when he died, if that :(
It actually struck me not long before reading this section that Hua Cheng chose to show himself to Xie Lian as a teenage boy quite a lot, even beyond the obvious shota fanservice.
And that's what he really looked like, the last time he had a natural body. His "true" form, the tall mature-looking 20 something, is the one he created for himself from his own imagination, to be taken seriously, including by Xie Lian.
But Xie Lian is the same, he hasn't naturally aged since he was 17. Like Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan, and even Shi Wu Du. They chose to look like adults because they felt like they needed to, but growing up has been a strange unnatural journey that's gone on for centuries. (Meanwhile Quan Yi Zhen just...looks like a teenager, because it's never occurred to him to look any other way)
(As I understand it, MXTX is a 20 something who achieved sudden fame and wealth in her late teens)
Seeing Xie Lian's hands tremble, Hua Cheng puts his hand on top of Xie Lian's, and somehow Xie Lian feels warmer.
Jun Wu has been setting riddles for Xie Lian, to test him on his journey to becoming heir. And of course he's been playing good cop-bad cop, tormenting him as No-Face and saving him as Jun Wu, looking impossibly powerful in both forms.
The first test was the Human Face disease, and the correct answer was to unleash the disease on YongAn. He would have helped Xie Lian cover it up and turned him into his trusted heir.
Guoshi: But since you gave him an unsatisfactory answer, the moment you were ascended, you were beaten back down.
Xie Lian: ...actually, that was my request >.>
While Xie Lian was banished the second time, Jun Wu was happy to slowly "educate" him. But when Xie Lian managed to ascend a third time all by himself, with no help or guidance, Jun Wu decided it was time to set more 'riddles'.
Also, Jun Wu is constantly paranoid of the other gods, and he used the 'riddles' to undermine everyone who might rival him in power.
First: the fetus spirit guided Xie Lian to Pei Ming's serial killer ex Xuan Ji. The "good" answer was probably to play politics with Pei Ming etc, but Xie Lian just tried to save the humans in danger.
Second: An empty shell pretending to be human guided Xie Lian to Ban Yue. Once again Xie Lian ended up undermining Pei Ming, one of the most powerful gods in heaven, along with Pei Su.
Third: Xie Lian is sent on a mission with Lang Qian Qiu, former Prince of YongAn. Xie Lian became was Lang Qian Qiu's Guoshi...and ended up nailed into a coffin alive when Lang Qian Qiu thought Xie Lian killed his parents (it was actually Green Goblin)
Fourth: Jun Wu fucks with Shi Wu Du's calamity (test to remain a god) in a way which ends in the death of Shi Wu Du and banishment of Shi Qing Xuan. Two more powerful gods down.
Fifth: The gathering of ghosts to create a new Supreme. There's widespread chaos (fun for Jun Wu) and so people pray more (power for Jun Wu)
I'm not sure I entirely follow the logic that sometime chaos causes more prayers and other times it causes resentment towards heaven but sure.
Also: Supreme ghost kings pre-date Jun Wu, and anyone with the determination to become one via the Kiln would have gotten there on their own eventually.
Xie Lian thinks about how Jun Wu gave him the understanding of the WuYong language and other stuff he's said.
Xie Lian: He seemed to want to make me believe that I am the Crown Prince of WuYong, or part of his soul.
Guoshi: Right, it made you easier to lead down the path he wanted. He couldn't tolerate that you're so similar yet walked down different paths.
Hua Cheng: They're totally different.
Guoshi: Young man, I am getting quite sick of your attitude, always so impolite under all these fake smiles. Ghost Kings may be rare but an elder like me is even rarer!
Xie Lian thinks that's not impoliteness, it's just that Hua Cheng fake smiles at everyone, but then Guoshi pulls him aside.
Guoshi: You Highness, I saw...you on the top of that statue.
Xie Lian: On top of the...OH. THAT. WAS JUST BORROWING SPIRITUAL POWERS. Well not just that, in any case it's...
Guoshi: ...have been avoiding women so long you've turned gay?
Xie Lian: NO
Guoshi: Oh, so you were born that way? I never noticed...alright, this part of you certainly isn't like him...
Xie Lian: WAIT
Guoshi, 2000 year old virgin: Don't worry, I won't lecture you on something I myself aren't an expert in. Besides, you've already come through so much, what's there left to worry about? Men or women, it doesn't matter, as long as you're happy.
Xie Lian: MMm...I am very happy.
Awwww
Guoshi: Although, after 800 years...why a Ghost King? I'm not saying you've got bad taste. But think things through- how will you get away if you ever want to dump him?
Xie Lian: Um, Master...
Guoshi: Trust me. By the looks of him, his fortune is contortedly fierce, the essence of evil smothering, practically like...
Hua Cheng: The Star of Solitude? :) *puts his arms around Xie Lian* My smile is certainly insincere, but to say to someone's face that he is Disaster Reborn, worst of misfortunes, his parents both dead and can't live past 18- it's not very nice is it? :)
Guoshi: Ah D:
On the one hand I like that there's flawed but basically well meaning characters like Guoshi, especially since it made for a good red herring about the Big Bad.
On the other hand IN YOUR FACE GUOSHI YOU WERE MEAN TO BABY HUA CHENG YOU SUCK
Content Notes for the book in general: consent issues, sexualisation of children, gore, mixed treatment of cross-dressing, suicide, child harm, incest subtext, emotional abuse, ANGST
Time to finally understand wtf has been going on!
Also: I've added "emotional abuse" to the content notes, I should have added it ages ago, sorry about that! It's no worse here than before.
Under the cut: SPOILERS for chapters 211-220.
The mysterious visitor is...Yin Yu! With the Earth Master's shovel! He's so nondescript that nobody thought to search him for weapons.
For a moment Xie Lian is afraid, and steps back. He realises this is Shi Qing Xuan's reaction to seeing the shovel ;_;
SPEAKING OF WHICH I remembered seeing a file marked SPOILERS: TGCF TIMELINE in the translation account, so just checked it out. I won't go into the spoilery parts, but the main surprise for me isn't a spoiler at all, just a methodical piecing together of all the facts we know about when all the various gods ascended etc. And if the person who worked out the timeline is right, way more of the main cast are around the same age as Xie Lian than I thought.
To summarise:
Obviously Jun Wu is the oldest, about 2000 years older than everyone else (OMG HE'S JESUS LOL)
Ling Wen is the next oldest. It's not clear to me how long she'd been an unaging junior official before Xie Lian ascended, it could have been anything from a few years to centuries. I lean towards like...5-50 years.
Xie Lian, Mu Qing, Feng Xin, Jian Lan, and Green Goblin are all around the same age, with Hua Cheng about seven years younger than Xie Lian.
Shi Wu Du ascended when Xie Lian was 30, and was in his late teens at the time so he's slightly younger than Hua Cheng. Pei Ming and Ling Wen ascended around that time too, which explains how they all became such close friends, and means Pei Ming is around the same age as Xie Lian as well. And since Rain Master and Xuan Ji knew Pei Ming as similarly aged humans, they join the around-Xie-Lian's-age club.
Shi Qing Xuan ascended a few years after that at SIXTEEN omg BABY. I kinda knew that already, but got thrown off by them making their password "Shi Qing Xuan is 26". But that's exactly what a shapechanging 16 year old surrounded by adults would do. I hope they got to keep their adult body as a mortal
WAIT. But I think Shi Qing Xuan became immortal when Shi Wu Du acescended and brought them to the lower court, which was when Shi Qing Xuan was THIRTEEN omg baby teenager stuck around a bunch of stuffy grownups. *imagines Ling Wen being stuck with baby-sitting as one of the few women in the lower court and hating it, meanwhile Shi Qing Xuan is just OMG WE CAN SWITCH GENDERS SHOW ME HOW??? :D*
Also does that mean He Xuan was 16 when he died? BABY SERIAL KILLER WOOBIE ;_; It's funny to think he's only 10 years younger than Hua Cheng but took another two hundred years to become a demon king.
Cuo Cuo is about 25 years younger than Xie Lian etc, making him about 8 years younger than Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan (who were born when Xie Lian was 17 and had just become a god). I wonder if Cuo Cuo could choose to look like an adult and just chooses not to, or if he doesn't have the right sort of mind.
Then there's a big gap. Lang Qian Qiu and the death of the YongAn royal family was about 500 years later.
Afaict there's no real known date for Yin Yu and Quan Yi Zhen ascending but it's put here on the timeline, and they were about 28 and 19 respectively.
100 years after Lang Qian Qiu, there's the mess with Ban Yue, Pei Su, and Kei Mo, so they're the youngest members of the cast. Despite being several hundred years old, lol.
EDIT: Ok after rereading some stuff I am not entirely convinced by this timeline. I think Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan were more like 18 when they died/ascended, and they and Shi Wu Du are quite a lot younger than Xie Lian etc.
Also, despite canon, I still think of Yin Yu and Pei Ming as looking 35-40, they just have that vibe.
Anyway. Yin Yu says he's going to gather up the other gods, and is vague about who he's going after first or why he doesn't want Xie Lian to come. Hua Cheng is not at all vague about why he thinks they should let the other gods hang, though Shi Qing Xuan censors it a little.
Xie Lian takes a nap in the tunnel, and wakes alone. And then his gut says danger is approaching, and a cold shiver goes down his spine. Hua Cheng wants Xie Lian to jump into Shi Qing Xuan's body which...ok, yes, Xie Lian's consciousness would be safer but he'd plausibly be stuck permanently in a mortal body with another person living in it? Shi Quin Xuan doesn't object but he also says Hua Cheng is looking especially scary when he makes the suggestion.
And then Xie Lian feels danger ahead as well, and decides "Forward and back makes no difference, so whatever!" and crawls forward.
Xie Lian: I've hit a fork in the road. Can you ask San Lang to pick left or right?
Shi Qing Xuan: He says neither.
Xie Lian: Then Qing Xuan, you pick one. You have a fifty percent chance of making the better decision, while I...
Shi Qing Xuan: I get it. Hmmmm........left!
(Aw, he dropped the surname! In another world I would ship these two)
After much crawling, they end up where they started. Someone has dug a giant circle.
Shi Qing Xuan: I guess I chose the wrong choice after all.
Xie Lian: ...no, I suspect whatever's on the right is worse.
And then they hear something crawling behind them.
Shi Qing Xuan: HAHAHAHAHA ISN'T THIS EXCITING D: D:
They hit another fork in the road, and then another. Shi Qing Xuan shouts LEFT!RIGHT!LEFT! in a panic until they end up stuck in a dead end. And then Xie Lian feels someone placing a hand on his head, and everything goes black.
He wakes tied to a chair by his bandage RuoYe, who is miserable about being tied into such tight knots. And his connection to Shi Qing Xuan has been cut off.
Jun Wu: My dear Xie Lian you are far too mischievous :)
Nnnng this guy was creepy enough as his separate personas but the combination of the two is just.../o\
Xie Lian sees the fetus spirit watching maliciously from his feet and realises Jun Wu set up the whole labyrinth full of creepy crawly things etc just to fuck with Xie Lian's head.
Xie Lian: You have a despicable hobby
Jun Wu: But now Xian Le is much braver than before :)
Knowing Jun Wu was also a Crown Prince makes him referring to Xie Lian as his country name interesting, like he's defining Xie Lian as a Prince, and also like...the personification of his people or something.
He sets Xie Lian in front of a
(side note I was about to comment on how MXTX incorporates mobile phones/chat rooms etc in her ancient fantasy more naturally than many writers of contemporary fiction, then remembered she's young enough to have grown up with them as a child)
Oh godddd I've been putting off describing this part. I just...
Jun Wu goes to visit Yin Yu and Quan Yi Zhen. Because, obviously, that's who Yin Yu left to rescue first.
Quan Yi Zhen, already beaten up from some fight we didn't see, goes on the attack. Jun Wu easily knocks him to the ground then smiles at Yin Yu. "No need to be on guard, it's not like it makes any difference. Why not relax, I'm not sure you and I have ever had a chance to chat :)"
Jun Wu talks about how Yin Yu was unfairly outshone by Quan Yi Zhen and forced to degrade himself working for a ghost and wouldn't it be nice if he could return to the Upper Court.
Oh gosh apparently Hua Cheng helped Yin Yu pacify and send of Yin Yu's old bff Jian Yu after he died in banishment and became a resentful ghost /o\
Jun Wu: You are so much more mature and wise than Quan Yi Zhen, if you had his natural talent you would achieve so much more.
Yin Yu: My Lord, 'if's are meaningless, he is- *starts glowing* AHHHHH WHERE DID THIS COME FROM I WAS NEVER THIS STRONG.
Jun Wu: Everything can be swapped. Even spiritual power :) Everyone will forget him and remember you. My new right hand.
Yin Yu: Can he steal them back? And ...will he die?
Jun Wu: He can only take them back if you give them willingly. And it will only hurt a little, but who hasn't suffered in this world :)
And so...Yin Yu agrees. Quan Yi Zhen writhes in pain while Yin Yu blows out a wall with more power than he has ever experienced in his life.
And then he creates a ring of shining light around Jun Wu, trapping him, and puts Quan Yi Zhen's comatose body on his back.
Jun Wu: Classy. But can you really say you don't hate him?
Yin Yu: OF COURSE I HATE HIM. BUT SO WHAT? THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WANT HIM TO SUFFER. And of course I want to return to the heavens! But if I can't do it on my own, I want to at least be able to admit I can't do it. ADMITTING I CAN'T COMPARE IS NOT THAT HARD.
Quan Yi Zhen: I'm so sorry ;_;
Yin Yu: Shut up! Don't apologise, you won't understand me either way.
Jun Wu: Exhilarating. You and Xie Lian must get along great.
Yin Yu: *urk*
Xie Lian: ????? D:
Jun Wu: I guessed you'd be like this. And that's why I didn't remove your cursed shackle.
The shackle on Yin Yu's arm has shrunk down so small it looks like his wrist will break, and the skin around it is going white, as if the shackle is sucking all his blood D: D:
I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE SHACKLES WERE CREEPY BUT AHHHH
A little while later Jun Wu comes in, holding a dark red band. He pats Xie Lian on the head and says "Go say goodbye to your little friend".
Yin Yu lays, white and shrivelled, in the arms of Quan Yi Zhen.
Quan Yi Zhen: I'M SO SORRY ALL I KNOW HOW TO DO IS FIGHT ;_;
Yin Yu: I always knew. Yi Zhen is a genius, and I'm just a commoner. I knew, but I couldn't accept it. Afterwards, I never let myself wonder why I told him to die.
Xie Lian hugs him. "It's alright. Live for a few more hundred years and you'll know that none of that really matters. Who hasn't had such thoughts? I thought about massacring everyone who ever wronged me, and I nearly did it. But yet I still shamelessly live on. You didn't actually do anything, in the end, and that's what matters."
Yin Yu: But in the end...it's so unfair. If I was already destined to be unremarkable, then at the very least...I wanted to be kind. But even in this moment, knowing that I'm dying for Yi Zhen, this little dummy... I can't even let go and die with a heart free of resentment and regret.
Xie Lian: You've worked so hard, and done much, much better than most people.
Yin Yu: Ha. Better than most people, huh? But, I wanted to be a god...
Xie Lian: Your Highness, there is no god in this world.
But Yin Yu is already dead.
;_;
I'm not sure if I cried the first time I read this but I am definitely crying now.
The tragic arcs in this book have felt contrived to me, characters suffer such an implausibly melodramatic sequence of awful events one after the other that it feels unreal, and undercuts the sense that anyone can be driven to a dark place, and there's a bit too much sudden snapping from Good to Bad. But what does really work for me is the depiction of just being...old and tired and unfixably damaged by the things you've done and thought and experienced, and then having to keep going anyway.
It suddenly occurs to Xie Lian that if Jun Wu kept the cursed shackle, maybe it contains something useful. Like Yin Yu's soul. He marches to the Martial Hall and shouts at Jin Wu. "HE WAS NOTHING TO YOU WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THAT?"
Jun Wu: It made you angry, which is very useful. But your tone is rather disrespectful.
And then Xie Lian falls to his knees, clutching his at the cursed shackle tightening around his neck, unable to breathe. Just like Guoshi did earlier.
Suddenly it occurs to him that before, when Guoshi was "choking" Xie Lian, he might actually have been trying to remove the cursed shackle.
Xie Lian is slowly allowed to breathe again. He puts his hand to his throat, and feels the shackle. But he feels something else: a ring on a silver chain that Hua Cheng gave him back in book one that I probably forgot to mention until now, oops.
He hears Jun Wu on the phone, smoothly making excuses about why Heaven is in lockdown, but saying whoever it is can come visit if they want.
Jun Wu refuses to explain, but tells Xie Lian to act as his right hand. "Don't bother with any silly tricks, I know you too well." He plays absently with the blood soaked shackle. "You said it yourself, Yin Yu was insignificant. All heavenly officials are insignificant to me. You understand what will happen is you expose anything. Now, tidy yourself up."
Who has Jun Wu spooked enough to try so hard to look good?
Rain Master :D
She's says she's come to help out in the capital, and has brought gifts. Jun Wu makes Xie Lian collect them from her attendant, and he freezes for a moment, unable to think of anything useful to say.
The attendant squeezes his hand, and just for a moment a smile twinkles in his eyes.
Naturally Jun Wu insists on keeping all the gifts. Xie Lian goes back to his Palace and there's the attendant...who quickly transforms himself into Hua Cheng.
Xie Lian glomps him so forcefully that Hua Cheng is forced back a few steps.
(Yes, the translation says 'glomp'. I guess no other English word captures the nuance of the original Chinese lol)
Hua Cheng reassures Xie Lian that he's made sure Jun Wu won't notice him missing from the capital, and explains that Rain Master is the only heavenly official in charge of agriculture. If Jun Wu messes with her before finding a decent replacement, there would be famine etc, which would undermine people's belief in him. So she's fairly safe, for now, especially since she's turned out to be a surprisingly good liar.
They sneak out across the roofs of Heaven, as Hua Cheng fills the air with invisible butterflies to spy on everything for him.
The nearly run into Cuo Cuo, who is also crawling along the roofs on his own business.
Jian Lian: Don't run around, this is a scary place! Wait, what are you eating?? Ew! That's for poor people and silly gods!
It's a radish. Rain Master's gift was vegetables, and Jun Wu threw it to his minion.
Cuo Cuo runs with the radish in his mouth...to the Palace of Feng Xin, where he gleefully spits it into the face of his father then screeches and attaches himself once again to Feng Xin's arm with his teeth.
Feng Xin: WHAT THE HELL? ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A BEATING?
Jiang Lan: WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE TO BEAT HIM?! If you hadn't slacked off as a father would your own son have been dug from his mother's womb and made into something like this? HE'S THE HELL YOU GAVE LIFE TO.
Feng Xin: But you're the one who told me to get lost...
Jiang Lan: You come to this bitch's side every day gloomy, you think I didn't know you were just too embarrassed to leave? You could never have redeemed my price-tag, having to split every penny and pay your respect to your Crown Prince, you think I wanted to add to your burdens?
Feng Xin: I would have kept my promise...
Jiang Lan: What did you ever give me? A belt you wouldn't let me sell? A protection charm that only brought bad luck? You had less and less money and more and more temper, what else was I going to do? TORMENT YOU UNTIL YOU HATED ME? UNTIL YOU WERE DEAD??
Xie Lian, the Crown Prince, and god of the protection charm: :(
Feng Xin: ...but I have a duty.
Jiang Lan: No need. I know you're disgusted by your son. As if you'd ever recognise him as your son.
Feng Xin: I...
Jiang Lan: DON'T BOTHER. You're a prisoner right now. Even if you were willing, I might not be.
And then she storms off, and Feng Xin is left alone.
Hua Cheng says that Jun Wu is interrogating Mu Qing, but his butterflies can't enter the martial hall to hear what's going on. Will the same thing happen to him as happened to Yin Yu?
Xie Lian and Hua Cheng move on, to Guoshi's prison: the palace of Ling Wen.
With the brocade immortal on she's unstoppable. But wearing something that evil all the time would be draining, especially since she was forced to maintain a male form. They wait until they see her leave in female form.
Xie Lian is embarrassed to be in the personal room of a female official, but it's so plain and unisex that he feels better.
And of course, she's hidden the black robe of the Brocade Immortal...in a box of plain black robes.
Since the Brocade Immortal doesn't seem to work on Hua Cheng, Xie Lian tries them on. Time to see if Hua Cheng can mind control him!
Hua Cheng: Let's borrow some spiritual powers ;)
Xie Lian: IT'S NOT THIS ONE.
Hua Cheng: What a pity.
Xie Lian: Be more serious! Ask anything else!
Hua Cheng: Don't borrow some spiritual powers :)
Xie Lian: NOT THIS ONE EITHER.
Hua Cheng: You haven't proved that.
Xie Lian: >:( *kiss* >:(
Hua Cheng: :)
But none of them work, so Xie Lian puts back on his white cultivator robe and sighs. Are they going to have to steal the whole box?
And then Ling Wen comes in. Before she can phone Jung Wu, Hua Cheng slams the door shut and casts a small magic shield around the room.
Xie Lian: As you see, we have the Brocade Immortal in our hands. Don't be reckless, unless you want us to set it on fire.
Ling Wen: It's not in your hands. You're wearing it :)
Hua Cheng quickly searches the black robes...and there hidden at the bottom is Xie Lian's original white robe. The Brocade Immortal tricked them.
Xie Lian: That's more cunning than I'd have expected.
Ling Wen: Yes, it was my idea. So really, it's as if I'm the one who made Your Highness wear this robe :)
Xie Lian: Perhaps it doesn't work on me.
Ling Wen: I won't know until I've tried- Your Highness, from now on you can't attack me. Nod if you understand.
And then...he feels himself nod.
Ling Wen: Hua Chengzhu, I suggest you not waste your time trying to think of ways to catch me off guard. Your Highness: if Hua Chengzhu is to attack me, or do any harm to me, then you will attack him. Now, Hua Chengzhu, will you please remove the ward?
(She's so terrible and I love her)
Hua Cheng just smirks, and then Ling Wen's eyes open and she opens her mouth...but no sound comes out. Hua Cheng sent a butterfly to the back of her neck and cast a spell to stop her from being able speak.
Ling Wen just gives him a significant look and waits for Xie Lian to strike. A moment later Xie Lian finds himself with his hand upon Hua Cheng's heart, having just landed a blow that Hua Cheng made no attempt to dodge. And now, the attack complete, Xie Lian is free.
Xie Lian: Are you ok? I hit really hard D:
Hua Cheng: Gege is indeed incredible, what a beautiful blow :)
Hua Cheng: If it wasn't for those things on your body, perhaps not even Jun Wu would be your match. You had a chance to remove them, why didn't you?
Xie Lian: Maybe...it was to remind me of some things. But don't change the subject, why did you take the blow?
Hua Cheng: You're in no position to lecture me. 'Why use other ways when I can just take a beating' is your bad influence on me.
Hua Cheng turns Ling Wen into a serious looking blue daruma doll. Xie Lian decides to keep wearing the Brocade Immortal which seem like a very bad idea to me but what do I know.
They hear Guoshi shouting...and find him sitting comfortably in a side room, playing cards with little magic paper people he must have made himself.
Xie Lian is overcome with nostalgia for all the times he saw Guoshi playing cards in his youth.
AND NOW
IT'S TIME
FOR A BIG OLD EXPOSITION DUMP WITH MASTER GUOSHI
Unlike MXTX I don't have to try and make this flow like an actual conversation, though tbh she didn't try very hard.
So! Guoshi is, despite all the evidence, basically a good guy.
2000 years ago, everything was great. Jun Wu was the glorious crown prince of WuYong, far greater than even Xie Lian in his time. And Guoshi was one of his loyal deputies.
But after Jun Wu ascended, he saw a vision of WuYong's destruction due to the volcano that became the Kiln. While he tried to come up with a peaceful solution, the WuYong generals "created more land" by massacring the inhabitants of nearby countries. Jun Wu got angry and stopped them, which made everyone angry with him.
He said: be patient. I will build a bridge to Heaven. "We believed in him. Or rather, we would do our utmost to support him no matter what." (I originally thought it was a metaphor, but no! Actual literal physical bridge!)
The other heavenly officials were massively opposed. Jun Wu was too busy to answer prayers, so they picked up the slack, stealing away all his believers, and thus the source of his power.
Three years later the volcano erupted. Everyone rushed onto the bridge, and Guoshi watched Jun Wu grow pale, struggle...and fail. The bridge collapsed, dropping millions into the flames, leaving millions more to die in ash and lava.
The remaining people went mad, setting fire to his temples, using blades to pierce his heart until it was mush, cursing him as useless trash. Gods aren't supposed to fail.
He asked heaven: why didn't you help?
The only answer they gave was banishment.
"We told him he could definitely ascend again, but it was too difficult. I'm sure you understand."
He tried to help his people from the ground, but the heavenly officials weren't done: they wouldn't stop the volcano, but they would offer small pieces of aid, just enough to gain worship and make Jun Wu look useless and weak.
Guoshi began to think it would have better not to tell anyone about the volcano, and only grant blessings after it came. Then Jun Wu would be receiving tears of gratitude instead of hatred.
As in Book 2, something about this kind of arc rubs me massively the wrong way, but anyway.
Jun Wu became more and more sombre. And one day he came to his friends saying he'd found a way to make the volcano stop.
By sacrificing the living.
They all objected- this was even worse than the war the Prince put a stop to! The others got aggressively angry, and stormed out. Only Guoshi was left by Jun Wu's side, heartbroken to see him so alone.
Jun Wu didn't mention human sacrifice again. Instead the two of them endured thrown rocks and jeers to perform services at the volcano to try and calm it down.
And then Jun Wu started to cover his face, saying he'd gotten burned. His personality changed, sometimes friendly, sometimes suddenly angry. One day he smashed all the mirrors.
All of a sudden, the volcano calmed down. The people cheered. But Guoshi began to hear voices in the night that sounded like his friends. His friends who noone had seen since the day they walked out.
He followed the voices to Jun Wu's room. And there, under Jun Wu's mask...Guoshi saw the faces of his three friends, surrounded by gashes where Jun Wu had tried and failed to cut them out. And when they saw Guoshi, they began to scream. RUN AWAY. HIS HIGHNESS HAS GONE MAD.
After storming out, they went back to check on Jun Wu, and found him throwing hundreds of people into the Kiln. When his friends tried to stop him, he killed them, and threw them in as well. And so they became resentful sprits, and attached themselves to his body, nagging him in rage every day to stop.
Guoshi is horrified. And before he can leave, he feels Jun Wu's hand upon his head.
Jun Wu: Don't be afraid. As long as you don't betray me like they did, nothing will change.
But Guoshi doesn't even need to say it. Jun Wu has had to learn to read expressions very well.
Jun Wu: It's okay. I expected it. No one would stay with me after I've become this. I understand now, I've always been alone. I DON'T NEED ANYONE.
He nearly kills Guoshi, but then lets him go, crying, and tells him to leave.
Guoshi ran. And the next time the volcano erupted, the whole country of WuYong was destroyed.
He made himself three simulcra of his friends, and played cards with them, ignoring the world. The gods in heaven changed and he didn't notice or care.
And then one day he heard of a Crown Prince born under the Ominous Star. And so Guoshi made himself look a little older and headed to XianLe to become the Guoshi with his 'friends'. And then, in this role, he talked to the new Emperor of Heaven...and recognised him.
But the faces had vanished, and Jun Wu had started a new life, so Guoshi pretended not to recognise him. Unfortunately, like Guoshi, Jun Wu saw himself in the young Prince Xie Lian.
Hua Cheng: They're not alike at all >:|
Jun Wu was delighted with Xie Lian, and wanted to encourage him to ascend. But Guoshi had a bad feeling.
Xie Lian hadn't wanted to believe that Jun Wu's affection for him had all been a lie. But hearing that it was real created complicated feelings.
The turning point was Xie Lian's ascension, which was described way back in Chapter 1.
An angry warrior spirit asked everyone "Where is this? Who am I? What will you do now?" and killed them when it didn't like their answers.
Xian Lie: This is the human realm
Ghost: This is the abyss
So Xie Lian fought the ghost, and won. But afterwards he planted a tree, and scattered soil to escort the ghost to the next life, saying "Body in the abyss, but heart in paradise".
Jun Wu, who was nearby, heard this and said "This child's future is limitless, impossible to measure".
And then came the drought, and the human face disease. At first Guoshi thought White No-Face was borne of nature, that the heavens wanted to punish XianLe.
Which I mean, they did, but he's obviously talking about a higher order above Jun Wu/The Emperor of Heaven, like laws of metaphysics/Fate. Do these have personifications/sentience too? My understanding of Chinese religion mostly comes from this, Monkey, and anime. HMM ok based on a skim of wikipedia there's a complex mix of ascended humans, animist spirits, a natural order, Buddhist reincarnation etc. I mean this is a fantasy world anyway, but there's enough references to things like Buddha and Daoism that it seems intended to be similar to Ancient China theologically.
Anyway.
Guoshi realised the 'deaths' that started the civil war were magic fake bodies, using a technique only he and Jun Wu knew.
(Why not use real bodies? Jun Wu is hardly unwilling to kill people. But maybe it worked better that way, I forget the specifics)
Guoshi confronted Jun Wu, and he said he wanted Xie Lian to become his perfect heir. The only one who could understand him, and would never betray him.
They fight, and Jun Wu would have killed him, but the three old friends come out, having been repressed with spiritual powers.
Guoshi ran, and returned to what remained of WuYong. He found the remains of his friends spirits, their ashes mixed with the lava to become mountain spirits.
They explain the Jun Wu killed off the previous gods one by one. And then he faked himself a new human identity, and ascended to his new heaven, using the bones of the old gods as the foundation.
And whenever the anger and resentment within him got too strong, he would go to the Kiln, which now recognised him as it's master. He'd use the millions of souls of WuYong's dead to forge monsters, like the Reverend of Empty Words. The mountain spirits tried to destroy them before they could get out of what was now Mount TongLu, and Guoshi hunted down any that got into the outside world.
Jun Wu has spent the last 2000 years actively destroying the memory of WuYong and murdering anyone who openly defies him, so Guoshi has had to work subtly and in secret. He's the one who left the murals, wanting to preserve the history but knowing that if he straight up told people Jun Wu would kill them, and him.
He was the fortune teller who tried to help Shi Qing Xuan's parents save them from the Reverend of Empty Words. Apparently it went after Shi Wu Du first, but he was too vicious and hard to scare, so it moved to the common but rich little brother.
Guoshi: But far stronger was a clone Jun Wu made of himself. That was the spirit you defeated when you ascended, and when you said "Body in abyss, heart in paradise" he took it as a jab. That was the turning point in his attitude to you.
Guoshi: The Kiln also cursed humans, dispelling it's accumulated misfortunes. For example, do you remember that child you saved, that I said was a Star of Solitude, covered in bad luck that you should avoid?
Xie Lian, looking at Hua Cheng: Mmmm...
Hua Cheng: :)
Guoshi: He was the sort whose fortune was always going to be either the best or the worst. But he absorbed all those misfortune when he was born, which is how he became so terrifying! The parents of such a child would either die or abandon him. He would suffer endless abuse, never make it past 18, and everyone around him would suffer misfortune. That's why I told you to get rid of him, not to-
Xie Lian: Please stop D:
Gusohi: Fine. It's just an example to show how scary the Kiln is.
Hua Cheng: *chuckle* It's not as scary as it seems. But Guoshi really is quite accurate in his readings :)
Me and Xie Lian: D: D:
Hua Cheng was only 18 when he died, if that :(
It actually struck me not long before reading this section that Hua Cheng chose to show himself to Xie Lian as a teenage boy quite a lot, even beyond the obvious shota fanservice.
And that's what he really looked like, the last time he had a natural body. His "true" form, the tall mature-looking 20 something, is the one he created for himself from his own imagination, to be taken seriously, including by Xie Lian.
But Xie Lian is the same, he hasn't naturally aged since he was 17. Like Shi Qing Xuan and He Xuan, and even Shi Wu Du. They chose to look like adults because they felt like they needed to, but growing up has been a strange unnatural journey that's gone on for centuries. (Meanwhile Quan Yi Zhen just...looks like a teenager, because it's never occurred to him to look any other way)
(As I understand it, MXTX is a 20 something who achieved sudden fame and wealth in her late teens)
Seeing Xie Lian's hands tremble, Hua Cheng puts his hand on top of Xie Lian's, and somehow Xie Lian feels warmer.
Jun Wu has been setting riddles for Xie Lian, to test him on his journey to becoming heir. And of course he's been playing good cop-bad cop, tormenting him as No-Face and saving him as Jun Wu, looking impossibly powerful in both forms.
The first test was the Human Face disease, and the correct answer was to unleash the disease on YongAn. He would have helped Xie Lian cover it up and turned him into his trusted heir.
Guoshi: But since you gave him an unsatisfactory answer, the moment you were ascended, you were beaten back down.
Xie Lian: ...actually, that was my request >.>
While Xie Lian was banished the second time, Jun Wu was happy to slowly "educate" him. But when Xie Lian managed to ascend a third time all by himself, with no help or guidance, Jun Wu decided it was time to set more 'riddles'.
Also, Jun Wu is constantly paranoid of the other gods, and he used the 'riddles' to undermine everyone who might rival him in power.
First: the fetus spirit guided Xie Lian to Pei Ming's serial killer ex Xuan Ji. The "good" answer was probably to play politics with Pei Ming etc, but Xie Lian just tried to save the humans in danger.
Second: An empty shell pretending to be human guided Xie Lian to Ban Yue. Once again Xie Lian ended up undermining Pei Ming, one of the most powerful gods in heaven, along with Pei Su.
Third: Xie Lian is sent on a mission with Lang Qian Qiu, former Prince of YongAn. Xie Lian became was Lang Qian Qiu's Guoshi...and ended up nailed into a coffin alive when Lang Qian Qiu thought Xie Lian killed his parents (it was actually Green Goblin)
Fourth: Jun Wu fucks with Shi Wu Du's calamity (test to remain a god) in a way which ends in the death of Shi Wu Du and banishment of Shi Qing Xuan. Two more powerful gods down.
Fifth: The gathering of ghosts to create a new Supreme. There's widespread chaos (fun for Jun Wu) and so people pray more (power for Jun Wu)
I'm not sure I entirely follow the logic that sometime chaos causes more prayers and other times it causes resentment towards heaven but sure.
Also: Supreme ghost kings pre-date Jun Wu, and anyone with the determination to become one via the Kiln would have gotten there on their own eventually.
Xie Lian thinks about how Jun Wu gave him the understanding of the WuYong language and other stuff he's said.
Xie Lian: He seemed to want to make me believe that I am the Crown Prince of WuYong, or part of his soul.
Guoshi: Right, it made you easier to lead down the path he wanted. He couldn't tolerate that you're so similar yet walked down different paths.
Hua Cheng: They're totally different.
Guoshi: Young man, I am getting quite sick of your attitude, always so impolite under all these fake smiles. Ghost Kings may be rare but an elder like me is even rarer!
Xie Lian thinks that's not impoliteness, it's just that Hua Cheng fake smiles at everyone, but then Guoshi pulls him aside.
Guoshi: You Highness, I saw...you on the top of that statue.
Xie Lian: On top of the...OH. THAT. WAS JUST BORROWING SPIRITUAL POWERS. Well not just that, in any case it's...
Guoshi: ...have been avoiding women so long you've turned gay?
Xie Lian: NO
Guoshi: Oh, so you were born that way? I never noticed...alright, this part of you certainly isn't like him...
Xie Lian: WAIT
Guoshi, 2000 year old virgin: Don't worry, I won't lecture you on something I myself aren't an expert in. Besides, you've already come through so much, what's there left to worry about? Men or women, it doesn't matter, as long as you're happy.
Xie Lian: MMm...I am very happy.
Awwww
Guoshi: Although, after 800 years...why a Ghost King? I'm not saying you've got bad taste. But think things through- how will you get away if you ever want to dump him?
Xie Lian: Um, Master...
Guoshi: Trust me. By the looks of him, his fortune is contortedly fierce, the essence of evil smothering, practically like...
Hua Cheng: The Star of Solitude? :) *puts his arms around Xie Lian* My smile is certainly insincere, but to say to someone's face that he is Disaster Reborn, worst of misfortunes, his parents both dead and can't live past 18- it's not very nice is it? :)
Guoshi: Ah D:
On the one hand I like that there's flawed but basically well meaning characters like Guoshi, especially since it made for a good red herring about the Big Bad.
On the other hand IN YOUR FACE GUOSHI YOU WERE MEAN TO BABY HUA CHENG YOU SUCK
