It’s been months but I’m still thinking about this tweet that said out off every character from Xianle that we meet, Hua Cheng is the most representative of their love for the arts, for riches and beauty.
Like truly he in many ways comes to personify Xianle in a way, both in the high society luxurious culture that Xianle was famous for but also he’s the orphan from the four famous tales making him the representation of Xie Lians care for the common people. Like he is both the lowest of the low and someone who’s kept the Xianle ways alive.
Like all my brain is thinking of is how Xie Lian distanced himself from all that to cultivate, then to become a God, then a poor peasant and how homesick he’s been his whole life.
Only for his husband who was a poor peasant, then a solder, then a king who represents everything Xianle stood for and how their stories are going backwards and forwards and how Xianle is gone but how Hua Cheng embody all of Xianles culture from the poor to the rich and and how he feels like home to Xie Lian now.
Wei Wuxian flute battle soundtrack when? I need that haunting, heart pounding donghua music 🥺 no dialogue, zombie moans dimmed, just straight up spectral rage and melody and battle beats.
I swear if I could blast that while cleaning, laundry would become a moral reckoning. Mopping? A battle for the soul of my household. Dishes? Consider them exorcised.
Mu Qing and Feng Xins overall immaturity, petty passive-aggression, and lack of personal growth over an 800 year span always blew my mind. But I’m starting to really consider that they had someone whispering in their ears about one another.
“Don’t mind him, Mu Qing. You know he always looked down on you and it’s only got worse since you left his highnesses side first. Feng Xin will never let that go.”
And vise-versa. Or even more insidiously, casually playing one another’s insecurities off each other in seemingly unrelated ways.
We all know Jun Wu love psychological games. Immortalizing everyone around Xie Lian not only physically but keeping them all emotionally stunted. (CoughLQQcoughcough)
And this also further serves to isolate Xie Lian, since if the three of them were able to co-exist then they could present a problem and possibly figure things out faster.
Too bad none of them could tread their own paths.
This is all just
Pure Speculation
Weibaybay
Why do so many fans think Jun Wu has no control over who ascends? Like, yes.. people ascend without his permission because there really is a cosmic order in this universe but he literally only needs to fill the slot to prevent randos from ascending.
And YES he CAN artificially ascend people and he DOES. I’m fr about to write up a whole essay on ascension this weekend istg.
The man literally says:
“Even fates can be swapped. Why not spiritual power?” Jun Wu said. “There are many things that are hardly as difficult as you assume. It is only a matter of a few words and a few brush strokes from a few great heavenly officials.”
Right after he sucks out one homies spiritual power and injects it into another.
And let’s be real.. Do y’all really think Jun Wu actually ascended a second time using his own power?
The dude who has the suffering souls of his first attempt at human sacrifice plastered on his own face and.. screaming?
Hell nah. This dude became the grandmaster of demonic cultivation. He experimented on fetus spirits like some mad scientist interested in unethical stem cell research. He probs invented the damn fate swapping ritual himself.
He has an entire fucking Burial Mound volcano where he vents his resentful energy. You think all that energy is accumulating just cus he’s mad? Or from just the three faces?
No way fam. This man is actively cultivating the dark arts and probs needs so many followers just to help balance the yang to his yin.
I mean.. c’mon. You fr think Feng Xin and Mu Qing ascended back to back naturally? And just after they left Xie Lian? There’s a whole damn arc about how unusual it is for two people so close to ascend so fast and so young
Jun Wu gifts Feng Xin a bow called Fengshen which is a homophone for the name of an entire Chinese myth about appointing mortals to godhood for political reasons.
Blows my mind to see that so many collectively deny the possibility when the narration is screaming clues from every digital and physical page.
I honestly pictured it as a more chaotic fandom of Yizhen Gege worshippers, meatheads who love fights and drama, all claiming to have “been there when he descended” and “seen it with their own eyes” telling stories about how “lit it was” when Yizhen Gege threw Paul Jr through the local tavern for calling Yin Yu a bxtch. (Since Paul Jr was annoying and had it coming) and they’re gunna go light some incense rn and ask Yizhen Gege to come beat up Big Bern too since he doesn’t keep his chickens in the coop and lets them poop all over Greta’s flower bed.
But I can also respect a much more distinguished vision of dedicated practitioners who live to learn and treat his violent visitations as an opportunity for growth. Love it.
The fact that Quan Yizhen regularly descended just to beat up his own worshippers, and this only resulted in gaining a larger following… is probably the most realistic thing in this whole high fantasy series.
Hua Cheng: I built this entire mansion all for you gege
Xie Lian: This is so much! San Lang is very talented indeed!
Hua Cheng: It was nothing <3
~
Luo Binghe: I built this home to look exactly like the bamboo house, so Shizun need not to ever leave me again!!
Shen Qingqiu: A bit of a red flag, but I appreciate the sentiment
~
Wei Wuxian: So where's our home?
Lan Wangji: This is the Jingshi
Wei Wuxian: Did you build it?
Lan Wangji: No
Wei Wuxian: Oh
Lan Wangji: My mother also died here
Wei Wuxian: Oh no
~
Bonus!
Mobei-Jun: I made you a new home
Shang Qinghua: Ah, my king, thanks for the... igloo?
Mobei-Jun: Mn
Shang Qinghua: Does it at least have heating?
Mobei-Jun: No?
Shang Qinghua: Greeeeaaaatttttt
Since the shackles were man-made and not part of heaven.. then Xie Lian didn’t ascend 3 times, he went through 3 heavenly tribulations.
And he did the last one in his sleep and had the nerve to describe it as “having weird dreams.”
“How could we? People made statues of him kneeling solely for the purpose of stepping on him!” Feng Xin said. “You’re not the one whose face is being stepped on, so of course you can dismiss it.”
“It’s not the first time that something like this has happened since the war was lost,” Mu Qing said. “And it surely won’t be the last. If he can’t get used to it soon, he might as well just die.”
This. Coming from the guy who literally appears in people’s dreams if he doesn’t think his statues are pretty enough..
Xie Lian: “Someone like Mu Qing… Even though he’s petty, narrow-minded, overly sensitive, paranoid, has a bad personality, is prone to fixating on the little things, never says anything pleasant, likes to nag, is always offending others and has garnered a lot of dislike on that account, has no friends, and remembers small, unimportant offenses for far too long…”
Fu Yao: “…”
Xie Lian: went on and on with a straight face, all in a single breath. He concluded with “…I’ve known him since we were young. He’s still got principles.”
Fu Yao: “…”
Xie Lian: “He might spit in the cup of someone he doesn’t like, but he would never poison the water,” Xie Lian continued.
Fu Yao: “…”
Hua Cheng: “Really? That’s still gross, though,”
Fu Yao: Veins were popping on [his] forehead. “No! He would never spit either!”
Xie Lian: “Laxatives, then,”
—Vol.5 Ch.51
All three audiobook series, all in one post! 🎧
TGCF audio novels:
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Whether you love Hualian, Wangxian, or Yanshen, there is something for everyone!!