Hualian: A True Power Couple.

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Hua Chengs Budaoweng Dolls

and their bitter irony..

How do ghosts get their powers? Some type of cultivation path. Like how Blackwater eats water ghosts and Qi Rong tries to copy this by eating people.

Hua Chengs cultivation path is Xie Lian. Everything he’s capable of is Xie Lian. The butterflies, the crimson rain, the luck. And yes, even the budaoweng dolls.

What is a budaoweng doll?

It’s a doll that is weighted so when knocked over it stands upright.

Impossible not to see the symbolic meaning there, am I right? Just in case: Xie Lian is a living budaoweng doll. He gets knocked down constantly and has no choice but to get right back up again.

Now for the dark irony of turning foes into budaoweng dolls..

It is both a tribute to Xie Lian, and punishment for its victims.

He is making them powerless, yet forcing them stand back up no matter how many times they’re knocked down. They can do nothing but get up.

He’s forcing resilience onto them while making them helpless. He’s mocking them. He’s making others feel a fraction of what Xie Lian felt.

“You pretend to be so righteous and upright? Well.. now you’re at least upright.”

It’s brilliant. It’s beautiful. It’s poetic justice. It’s little things like this that make me fall in love with tgcf over and over

If I was going to make this analogy it’d probably be more like:

“imagine if you attended a car rally where you and hundreds of people murdered your brothers friends then started plans to hit your brother with a car and kill him (since he’s using diesel instead of gasoline.) But then your brother shows up with a bunch of remote control cars and it turns into some kind of deadly demolition derby. Metal flying everywhere, flaming tires arcing across the sky, the ground is littered with oil and glass.

Then your sister shows up with no car, barefoot, and she’s just running around in the chaos. She’s hit by one of your brothers car and your brother races to get her. She’s injured asf and needs immediate first aid. Then some asshole on your own side drifts in, tires screeching, and slams into her.

Raging mad, you murder him with your car.. only to find out years later that the car you killed him with.. was given to you by your brother. And you wouldn’t even have been able to attend the death derby from hell if it wasn’t for him.”

Imagine you're in a car with your brother and you keep telling him "slow down, you're going too fast" and he insists "I've got it under control!" And then he hits someone and you get out of the car and find out it's your sister. Your brother goes crazy from guilt and starts running over people left and right until you have to kill him to make sure no one else dies. Then years later he comes back to life and his boyfriend reveals oh guess what fuckhead. The reason he had to drive recklessly everywhere? Because he gave his legs to you in a secret operation you didnt know about. That's mdzs from Jiang Cheng's pov

Ive said it before, Xie Lian as Heavenly Emperor isnt an idea im really excited about, but if he were to become heavenly emperor, i think he would be exactly like the stereotype of the chill boss that's never around and lets everyone do whatever they want on the condition that the work gets done in the end

Feng Xin and Mu Qing are fighting over who gets to kill monster of the week? Thats fine, as long as you kill it. Roll dice or smth idc just help the villagers.

You can have 34 girlfriends at the same time, I guess, Pei Ming, but make sure you deal with whatever has been causing unrest in your territory meanwhile.

Everyone leave Ling Wen alone. Just leave her be.

Rain Master is allowed to bring in her farm animals to the great hall if she wants to i guess

Yes you can play music in the heavens but keep it low during night time

If you have any complaints, too bad. If nobody is dead or dying, I don't need to know. If you do disturb me, you may have to deal with my husband so just figure it out.

I fr just wanted to stop responding cus this obv isn’t going anywhere, it’s pointless, we don’t see eye to eye, agree to disagree blah blah but there’s one part in particular I can’t let go because I’m wheeeezing

Are you aware that Mu Qing and Feng Xin were so desired in heaven, since they are both pretty competent ? In fact, Mu Qing easily found another master.

😂😂

Was this ironic? Do you realize.. what you’re saying? Their new master.. the system that desired them.. ok I’m done lmao you just made my point for me

“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..

Probs so [someone] knows who to sacrifice for maximum gain at [the place where people are sacrificed for power]

Power of belief and all.

NO BUT WHY DOES HE HAVE A SWORD THAT DETECTS VIRGINS??????

Why is it common knowledge that the flashbacks in Volume 6 (7s) take place starting 4+ years after the fall of Xianle? As in, they’ve been on the run for 4+ years. I can’t find anything to support this in the text, and there’s a lot of context clues that suggest it hasn’t even been a full year.

Please point me in the right direction to confirm this.

Is that timeline fanon or canon?

Right up his alley indeed, he didn’t even have a chance to come to terms with Feng Xins departure yet.

Feng Xin doesn’t lash out with jabs and barbed wit like Mu Qing, but hes absolutely no better. His way of hurting Xie Lian is just as problematic.

It’s more sanctimonious, more judgmental, more “I’m disappointed in you,” which in some ways is even worse because it masks cruelty as morality.

“Where is your dignity?”

“Aren’t you ashamed?”

“You call yourself a man/god/whatever?”

Might as well say

“You used to be better.”

“Look how far you’ve fallen.”

It’s never overt abuse, it’s moral posturing. It’s humiliation disguised as righteousness.

There’s one scene where Xie Lian asks about Nan Fang and Fu Yao, and both of them claim they’re in detention. Mu Qing, ok yeah. He’s just like that, but Feng Xin? Willingly and publicly saying ‘I punished my subordinate for helping you’

That wasn’t the only time Feng Xin would pretend like Xie Lian meant nothing when others were looking iirc

And I 100% agree with you. by the end I think Mu Qing and Xie Lian are closer and I think it has a lot to do with Mu Qing being honest with not only himself, but Xie Lian. They both had a chance to express themselves in a healthy way and come to terms with the past. Because both of them made mistakes.

Meanwhile Feng Xin is still in his own world of “I did nothing wrong, theres no reason to reflect”

Hello there!

I saw the thread about topics within the book and one I had to ask about is what is this spicy take on the black water arc? Like now, I'm super curious and have to follow up on this!🤣😅

Veering sideways about the one on if Jun Wu did it or not. Xie Lian's parents being either killed or manipulated by Jun Wu to do so would track with him. Have you determined which stuff was probably him and which wasn't? It's honestly really terrifying to think how long he was terrorizing and ruining their lives until things unraveled with Xie Lian's third ascension.

And the three clowns one - what's that referring to?

TIA!🌸

Some of this is going to be tough to answer without going into full dissertation mode but I’m going to try to keep it brief and platform appropriate. I’ll save Blackwater for last haha you're tryna get me blacklisted

The thing that sold me on Xie Lians parents was the fact that they used his white silk band to do it, which is hugely symbolic and basically screams “It’s your fault.” First read through, I thought they did it because they were feeling as if they were a burden to Xie Lian. Since then though? No. That silk band was used by Xie Lian every single day, and he had to search for it. His parents were not so cruel. Then there's the amount of trauma that band would have had to endure to become sentient. A quiet acceptance of death by suicide doesn't fit the bill. 

I actually want to keep on that to further compound my thoughts, but I'm wont, because the point is; in finding out what Jun Wu may or may not have done, looking at out-of-character actions and what doesn't add up is best. Like Xie Lians sleeve getting caught on a cloud during his descent. The Spirits at Mt. Taicang that attacked Honghong'er. Mu Qing just so happened to show up at the blessed mountain when Xie Lian finally thought he was catching a break. Who killed Ming Yi? The friggen drought.

And yes, the clowns. MQ/FX. This ties into the prior: Why are they so unbearably acidic towards Xie Lian? Some past grievances, yes. But they are hostile, they think he's an idiot, and they're never there when Xie Lian needs them yet fight over who's the worse friend- not who is the better friend. It's not a bitter past, its more like their flames were stoked beyond reason. Then, time and time again, they deny any association with him in public, leaving him hanging. Are they just afraid of rumors? Mu Qing, maybe. But the noble and just beacon of righteousness, Feng Xin? Would watch his friend and former liege be humiliated and not say anything? 

And could I, in all confidence, after reading multiple mxtx works say "It's just because that one event upset them,” and leave it at that? 

And no, I have not verified all. Some have backup, some are speculation. It’s something I’d like to work on the next time I return to tgcf though. 

The Blackwater arc.. woof. Ok, bracing myself for incoming projectiles. 

In a nutshell, it's that Shi Wudu stole Shi Qingxuans fate of wealth and that's how he gained the title God of Wealth, contrary to popular belief. I could go full blown dissertation.. and actually I might, but first I'll just start with where I started:

Shi Qinxuan had a fate of wealth that was verified to not have been touched by Blackwater, nor consumed by the Reverend of Empty Words. So why was he a destitute beggar at the end? Not poor, not struggling, but a crippled, starving beggar. 0 wealth. None. Not a single coin.

The wealth he has as god was showered on him by Shi Wudu and most Shi Qingxuans temples were shared. I actually dont recall it saying he had his own temples at all (doesn’t mean it didn’t happen)

Then I asked myself "Why was 'wealth' used so many times in this tangled arc? Qingxuans fate, Wudu's domain, He Xuans windfall.." 

"Who benefitted the most?"

Then questions like "What was Shi Wudu's overprotectiveness really about? Mostly optics, right?" 

Because... what if someone found out..? His overprotectiveness really only flares up once the spiritual power is gone.. you could say it's all about safety but.. 

And so I read through carefully to either confirm or deny the hypothesis and regardless of how much no one wants to hear about it I'm firmly in the camp that this isn't a head-canon but possibly an intention. The timelines of Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan dont back the idea that the fate swap only happened at the last moment before ascension. Shi Wudu moved them to a home less than an hour away from He Xuans hometown before he even ascended. The power of the RoEW was not insurmountable. And just because Shi Qinxuan wasn’t “fated” to ascend doesn’t mean he couldn’t have, but Shi Wudu sure wasn’t going to wait to find out. 

Maybe it was greed, maybe it was a necessity in order to preform the fate ritual idk. But Shi Qinxuans fate is gonezo and neither the RoEW nor Blackwater laid claim to it. 

I’m re-reading book 6.

*deep breaths*

I’m not prepared. But I’m doing it anyways.

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.