Heaven Official's Blessing//TGCF: Novel Reaction - PART 63 - Chapters 194-198!

Can we have badges? I feel we need badges. 🙂 Yes, while they were a LOT, they were so important to finish establishing HC and XL before we hypothetically go back to the present! And YES, the ability to hurt but choosing NOT to - and the hard road of choosing to be “good.” And yes, seeing the damage XL and HC COULD do to the world is very impressive, indeed! And yes, XL choosing to keep doing good despite all the stakes against him – it makes me love him SO much! And HC – with all this trauma inside for not being able to protect the love of his life! But yes, they CAN enable one another, so one has to stand up and help the other, rather than sink into despair with them! And yes, we see now that HC is not afraid to challenge XL, whereas he would not have as WuMing! #GROWTH I just love these two to pieces and no worries about rambling! 🙂Thank you for the kind words and comment!

Romaniablack

That is such a beautiful way to phrase it! :) Thanks for the comment!

Romaniablack

In the end it is the common people who saved xielian 🥹

Phew... finally we can collect our “Survived Vol. 6 Badges”! These chapters were.. a lot.. but also integral to both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng’s characters. I think one of the biggest themes in these chapters is having the ability to hurt, but choosing not to, and just how hard it is to choose to be ‘good’ in such a world. It’s easy to forget because our current Xie Lian is such a wholesome scarp collector and Hua Cheng is so kind and considerate towards him, but the both of them are incredibly powerful and if they wanted to, could probably deal a substantial amount of damage to the moral realm. Xie Lian rolled in the mud and dirt, experienced the cruellest humbling of a lifetime, and was betrayed by not only his friends but almost by his idealism as well.. but still chose to do good and believe in better. Hua Cheng on the other hand, oh boy do I have A LOT of things to say about him... *Pats Wu Ming* this boy can fit so much trauma inside! I really love Wu Ming, he is a subtle but incredible mark of growth to Hua Cheng’s character. So far, as the previous volumes have demonstrated time and time again, the greatest motivator for Hua Cheng is Xie Lian. However, I think in this situation we get to see where it kind of backfires in the way that they’re both feeding into each other’s anguish and kind of enabling each other. Hua Cheng is a newly born wrath ghost without the great years and years of experience and worldly knowledge of the Hua Cheng we have become accustomed to in the future and so he kind of defaults into blind devotion. We see this as he kills the temple full of people and transforms from a helpless ghost-fire to a wrathful ghost and again as he, without hesitation, almost kills to prove his loyalty and when he declares his desire for revenge against Yong’An as well. Although part of it is defiantly Hua Cheng being unable to accept Xie Lian taking on that burden, I don’t doubt that, as a soldier who once fought for Xie Lian and witnessed firsthand all that Xie Lian did for the common people… for them to turn their backs on Xie Lian and mistreat him.. at the very least he’d spit on the ground of Yong’An if not for Xie Lian making the active decision to save Yong’An. This is where I feel there’s big maturity growth between Wu Ming and Hua Cheng similar to Past Xie Lian and scarp collector Xie Lian. Our Hua Cheng, has shown in the future, that he’s not unwilling to “protest against” (I say ‘protest against’ very lightly) Xie Lian if Xie Lian is doing something that is harmful to himself, such as with Lang Qianqiu and revealing the truth about the Goushi of Yong’An strictly against what Xie Lian wanted. We see it again when Hua Cheng gently warns Xie Lian again and again to stay away from the wind-master and not to get involved, (and that whole making-out on the ground in front of poor Qi Rong). & More recently, when Hua Cheng discourages Xie Lian from doing or touching dangerous/suspicious things. As you’ve said in the past, Hua Cheng has done a lot to help get Xie Lian into a better headspace and I think that Wu Ming is not unable, but can’t quite see past his own unbridled, passionate devotion to do it as effectively. However, I love that we do get to see a reflection/foreshadow of this future Hua Cheng in Wu Ming when Wu Ming takes on the spirits and sacrifices himself, but it’s not quite fully developed yet. I think, in the same way, Xie Lian of the future would’ve handled this situation differently, Hua Cheng of the future would have as well and I think that it is so so cool to see two characters getting such tangible growth - to see the both of them making mistakes in the past and venturing not to repeat them in the future. Sorry for rambling so much >.>

Lue