![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keltenaMy notes while reading Heaven Official's Blessing, Book 4: White-Clothed Calamity!
FLASHBACK ARC HYPE
—oh shit. That's the imagery I'm supposed to have been getting from Ruoye this whole time, isn't it?
Ah, so you wouldn't normally last 800 years while de-de-de-deified, huh? (I, uh, take it the final clause no longer applied after his second banishment.)
Oh dear. Please just keep the royals away from the kitchen.
Wow, Mu Qing's departure went down even worse than I'd expected. I knew it would be a mess, but damn. I was not expecting "everyone else is such an asshole that Mu Qing doesn't even get
the chance to fail to help his case." That's... honestly impressive.
This is such a good bit of characterization. ♥
...oh, these two.
How do you say "And thus they proceeded to never communicate about anything, ever, for the next eight centuries" and make it sound genuinely emotional rather than just snarky? Because that's what's going through my head right now.
Ah. Thirty-some, huh? I guess that's what those thirty-three heavenly officials did to earn Hua Cheng's wrath.
Oh, good, he's being nice. (Incidentally, if you happen to have like 20 more chapters of this I'd be happy to take them off your hands.)
Ow. That hits right in the heart. D:
Incidentally, White No-Face's mannerisms and attitude towards Xie Lian do seem like a good match for Jun Wu's now that I'm looking for it. If I only had his personality and the circumstances of his death to go on, I'd assume he was just Jun Wu in disguise. But the whole "had to possess and eat Lang Ying to survive" thing kind of threw a wrench in that for me...
The blowup with Mu Qing when Xie Lian returns home is such a well-crafted bit of conflict, god. It's almost physically painful to read, and yet I keep going back over and over it to marvel at how perfectly it's all set up and then set off.
Oh dear. I guess that would explain why he's so optimistic about his own cooking skills...
... oh, honey. :(
Yes, yes, very cute echo of Xie Lian's own words. You get an A. :P
White No-Face's thing for unwanted headpats makes me happy.
Ohhh. Oh no. This is going to be how Ruoye was born, isn't it?
"Look, you can either try to save everyone OR you can avoid being pierced by infinite swords of human hatred. This is, like, deconstructed heroic archetype 101."
...Whatever precisely is going on with White No-Face, that sure is a pointed mention of Jun Wu.
;__;
These flashback arcs have been devastatingly good tragedy from start to finish, but seeing innocent newborn Ruoye in this context is the closest I've come to actually crying.
Huh. Am I right in assuming he's literally saying 无名 ("nameless"/"no-name")? If so, I'd be interested to know how that comes across to a Chinese reader. In English, "Wuming" sounds about as name-like as any combination of foreign syllables, but "No-Name" definitely would not; I'm curious if the original impression is similar to the translation's, or if it comes off more like "If you have no name then I'll call you No-Name."
Lang Ying seriously gets some of the best scenes in the entire novel. His death scene is just... perfect. ♥
I love the unspoken reveal in these chapters that actually, Hua Cheng got the idea it would be supportive to murder everyone who'd ever wronged Xie Lian entirely from Xie Lian himself. These two are such perfectly-matched disasters.
... oh, honey. :( :(
oh my god xie lian
that's. that's the retort you're going with...?
God, the climactic scene with the man in the rain is so good. ;__; I don't have the words to say more than that right now; it's just perfect.
Holy shit, a reaction! That's a first.
Yeah, that's the weakness of these show-them-the-error-of-their-idealism plots: get too involved, and you invalidate your own conclusion through experimenter influence. It takes a very light touch to convince your hero of the evils of humanity rather than the evils of you, personally.
(If anything, the lesson Xie Lian took away from this is that the best way to cope with tragedy is to blame it on a nameless masked man.)
I love how sulky White No-Face sounds in scenes like this. I wasn't expecting the personality behind the Inscrutable, Implacable Force of Destruction schtick to be so plainly obnoxious and petulant, and I love it. The most terrifyingly overpowered vengeful ghost in history! Capable of toppling gods and bringing whole nations to ruin! Spends most of his time trying to neg and gaslight a teenager into his edgelord phase, then takes said teenager growing out of it with the approximate maturity of Flowey from Undertale.
Hmm. That does sound like he was very visibly, physically destroyed by Jun Wu, yes.
...God, it really is his solution to all awkward situations.
"I've committed an unforgivable crime. Pray my lord banish me to the mortal realm once more."
"Well, you seem repentant, and you didn't actually kill anyone who wasn't already dead or soon to be anyway, so—"
"My lord will just have to banish me to the mortal realm once more."
.........
"Xianle, this punishment seems disproportionate to the crime."
"My lord is right, of course. He should put me in bondage, then banish me to the mortal realm."
I love that we spend so long waiting for the full story behind That Time Xie Lian Declared Very Short-Lived War on Heaven, and then the answer turns out to be, "Oh, that just straight-up never happened. ...But honestly, it'd have been an improvement over what he actually did."
Oh come on, Xie Lian, that's just mean.
Flashback arcs continue to be best arcs. ♥ God that was good.
No new squares checked this time (though "lovingly-detailed tragedy and suffering" has gotten a hell of a workout), but this volume has left me surprisingly torn about a square I thought was cut-and-dry. I figured "Main Character Death" was a bust for this novel, and that's held true so far—as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't count unless the MC dies an actual death of the typically-permanent kind—but... damn, that swords scene made every possible effort short of that to qualify anyway. Explicitly establishing that being fatally wounded while immortal "counts" as death by the setting's mechanics! For the express purpose of killing the main character, specifically, 100 times in short succession! In a manner that destroys his body thoroughly enough to render him physically and mentally nonfunctional for an extended period of time, even.
On the one hand, it definitely doesn't actually count as checking off the square. But I keep feeling like I ought to give some kind of recognition for such an astonishingly above-and-beyond effort to unlock the achievement anyway, so...
Let's just call that an honorable mention.
FLASHBACK ARC HYPE
Within the dream, both his father and mother had committed suicide, had hung themselves. He saw it, but there was no joy or grief, no tears to flow, and he woodenly prepared himself another white silk band.
—oh shit. That's the imagery I'm supposed to have been getting from Ruoye this whole time, isn't it?
when Jun Wu had first fabricated Xie Lian’s cursed shackle, he'd still shown some mercy, and left him room for accommodations.
While this cursed shackle locked away his spiritual powers, it also sealed his age and flesh body at the same time, allowing him to neither age nor die. Furthermore, Jun Wu had told him: if you manage to ascend again, then everything in your previous life shall be forgiven, and this thing will be removed.
Ah, so you wouldn't normally last 800 years while de-de-de-deified, huh? (I, uh, take it the final clause no longer applied after his second banishment.)
Xie Lian relaxed but then quickly asked, “What’s with the smoke?”
The queen replied, embarrassed, “...It’s not really anything. I just wanted to do a little cooking today…”
Oh dear. Please just keep the royals away from the kitchen.
Wow, Mu Qing's departure went down even worse than I'd expected. I knew it would be a mess, but damn. I was not expecting "everyone else is such an asshole that Mu Qing doesn't even get
the chance to fail to help his case." That's... honestly impressive.
Mu Qing’s departure had really shocked him to the core.
First, he had never thought that someone so close would just up and leave. Second, Xie Lian had always believed in “forever”. For example, friends would always be friends forever: no betrayal, no deception, no breaking up. Perhaps there’d be times when they’d part, but it for sure wouldn’t be over reasons like “life is too horrible”.
It was like how in stories, the hero and the beauty were a match made in heaven, and so they should never part, remaining true to each other forever and ever. If they couldn’t, it must be because they were forced apart by a tragic death, not because the hero preferred to eat meat while the beauty preferred to eat fish, or because the hero scorned the beauty for spending too lavishly and the beauty scorned the hero for his bad habits.
This is such a good bit of characterization. ♥
He continued, “If your beloved knew you couldn’t rest in peace because of them, they might feel guilty and troubled.”
The nameless ghost hesitated for a moment, and replied, “Then, I just won’t let them know why I haven’t gone.”
...oh, these two.
How do you say "And thus they proceeded to never communicate about anything, ever, for the next eight centuries" and make it sound genuinely emotional rather than just snarky? Because that's what's going through my head right now.
Those thirty-some heavenly officials exchanged looks with each other, some whispering. A moment later, someone stepped out, and he smiled.
“Your Highness has taken over a number of auspicious lands in the past. Why don’t you let us have this one this time?”
Ah. Thirty-some, huh? I guess that's what those thirty-three heavenly officials did to earn Hua Cheng's wrath.
Then, Xie Lian’s body froze abruptly.
White No-Face had hugged him!
Xie Lian knelt in a slump while he was encircled by a pair of cold but powerful arms and pulled into a lifeless embrace.
Without knowing when, White No-Face had also sat down with him. He murmured, “So sad, so sad. Your Highness, look at yourself, look what they’ve done to you.”
He murmured softly as he caressed Xie Lian’s head, his hands gentle and merciful, like he was petting a wounded puppy, or his child who was about to pass away from severe illness.
Under the moonlight, the smiling face of that cry-smiling mask was hidden in the darkness, revealing only the half that was crying, seeming like it was genuinely shedding tears of grief for Xie Lian.
Through his gesture, Xie Lian actually felt a peculiar kind of loving compassion. Just as if he was in the embrace of his best friend or a familiar family member, his shivering body miraculously became warmer.
He had never thought that in such a state, the one who would give him compassion and warmth would be this strange creature.
Oh, good, he's being nice. (Incidentally, if you happen to have like 20 more chapters of this I'd be happy to take them off your hands.)
That ball of ghost fire flew to his heart, looking as if it wanted to warm him, but it wasn’t confident that it could help chase away the cold, so it didn’t press close.
Ow. That hits right in the heart. D:
Incidentally, White No-Face's mannerisms and attitude towards Xie Lian do seem like a good match for Jun Wu's now that I'm looking for it. If I only had his personality and the circumstances of his death to go on, I'd assume he was just Jun Wu in disguise. But the whole "had to possess and eat Lang Ying to survive" thing kind of threw a wrench in that for me...
The blowup with Mu Qing when Xie Lian returns home is such a well-crafted bit of conflict, god. It's almost physically painful to read, and yet I keep going back over and over it to marvel at how perfectly it's all set up and then set off.
To be honest, the taste of his mother’s cooking really was quite terrifying, and the more times she entered the kitchen, the more effort she put in, the more astray the path of her progress. Xie Lian had also never cooked, but the meals he made didn’t taste too bad. It seemed, it could only be explained by way of natural talent.
Oh dear. I guess that would explain why he's so optimistic about his own cooking skills...
At least there was one consoling thing in all of this. While he’d been sure he was done for and the king had overheard that night, based on how things had been the past few days, it didn’t look like the king and the queen knew about his robbery incident. Otherwise, with the king’s temperament, he would’ve started yelling at him already.
... oh, honey. :(
Xie Lian demanded sharply, “What do you want with me on your side? To take your life?”
White No-Face only chuckled softly and said warmly, “Your Highness, you are a beautiful block of jade. Allow me to guide and educate you.”
Yes, yes, very cute echo of Xie Lian's own words. You get an A. :P
“The second thing—”
He seized Xie Lian, making him lose his balance and almost trip. Xie Lian felt a hand pet the top of his head.
“You want to save the common people, do you? The common people don’t need to be saved by you. They aren’t worthy.”
White No-Face's thing for unwanted headpats makes me happy.
Xie Lian fought against his bindings, but wasn’t able to loosen them in the slightest. It seemed that this white silk had already been tampered with, and had probably been injected with spiritual power.
Ohhh. Oh no. This is going to be how Ruoye was born, isn't it?
“What about me? Aren’t you the one who proclaimed that you wanted to save the common people?”
Xie Lian reasoned, “But, but I—I…”
But he’d never thought that under this type of situation, he would use this sort of method to save people?!
"Look, you can either try to save everyone OR you can avoid being pierced by infinite swords of human hatred. This is, like, deconstructed heroic archetype 101."
By the time he came to, White No-Face had already strapped that black sword on his waist, like an elder rewarding a child.
“This is my gift to you.”
Then, he patted the hilt, and said gently, his voice thick with deeper meaning, “It will certainly be much sharper than all the other ones you’d collected from Jun Wu.”
...Whatever precisely is going on with White No-Face, that sure is a pointed mention of Jun Wu.
With the injection of spiritual power, having been dyed with Xie Lian’s blood, and even having hung two royals to death—if Xie Lian could die, then it’d be three—such a white silk band, carrying such a deep resentment and evil, it’d be more strange if it didn’t turn into a spirit.
The little spirit who had only just arrived in this world didn’t understand how it was born from a despairing situation at all, and happily drifted over to the one who gave it a soul, like it was hoping for an intimate gesture. However, Xie Lian had no eyes for it. He clutched his head and roared.
;__;
These flashback arcs have been devastatingly good tragedy from start to finish, but seeing innocent newborn Ruoye in this context is the closest I've come to actually crying.
After being silent for a moment, that black-clad youth replied, “I don’t have a name.”
Xie Lian didn’t push for more either, and said, “Without a name makes one Wuming.”
Huh. Am I right in assuming he's literally saying 无名 ("nameless"/"no-name")? If so, I'd be interested to know how that comes across to a Chinese reader. In English, "Wuming" sounds about as name-like as any combination of foreign syllables, but "No-Name" definitely would not; I'm curious if the original impression is similar to the translation's, or if it comes off more like "If you have no name then I'll call you No-Name."
Lang Ying seriously gets some of the best scenes in the entire novel. His death scene is just... perfect. ♥
I love the unspoken reveal in these chapters that actually, Hua Cheng got the idea it would be supportive to murder everyone who'd ever wronged Xie Lian entirely from Xie Lian himself. These two are such perfectly-matched disasters.
“What did he say? Just what is happening? Did he say?”
The ones in the front rows called back, “No!”
“Then what did he say?”
“He said, ‘Save me’.”
... oh, honey. :( :(
That half-crying half-smiling mask was upside-down, and coincidentally blocked his entire vision. They faced each other, with only a few feet between their faces.
Xie Lian said coldy, “Get the hell out of here, you’re blocking me from watching the sky.”
To be told to get the hell away, White No-Face wasn’t upset in the least. He laughingly straightened up, sounding more and more affable, like an elder who was tolerant of a spoiled child. “What’s so good about the sky?”
“It’s prettier than you,” Xie Lian snapped back.
oh my god xie lian
that's. that's the retort you're going with...?
God, the climactic scene with the man in the rain is so good. ;__; I don't have the words to say more than that right now; it's just perfect.
White No-Face was sent flying by his kick, but he flipped in the air and landed steadily.
He yelled, “ARE YOU MAD?!”
Holy shit, a reaction! That's a first.
“From the start, it was your arrogance and your naive dreams that caused everything!”
Xie Lian could feel his organs twist and retract from the stomp, the pain excruciating, but he still held back that mouthful of blood. “No. It wasn’t me!”
“Huh?” White No-Face said unpleasantly.
Xie Lian reached out and clutched firmly onto that boot, his eyes clearer than ever before, shining and bright. “It’s you who brought the Human Face Disease. It’s you who caused everything!”
Yeah, that's the weakness of these show-them-the-error-of-their-idealism plots: get too involved, and you invalidate your own conclusion through experimenter influence. It takes a very light touch to convince your hero of the evils of humanity rather than the evils of you, personally.
(If anything, the lesson Xie Lian took away from this is that the best way to cope with tragedy is to blame it on a nameless masked man.)
“...” White No-Face humphed. “Perhaps. If you must think that way.”
Then, he smiled. “But you must understand, that if it wasn’t for your arrogance in defying the heavens, I would never have appeared in this world. I was born by the will of heaven.”
I love how sulky White No-Face sounds in scenes like this. I wasn't expecting the personality behind the Inscrutable, Implacable Force of Destruction schtick to be so plainly obnoxious and petulant, and I love it. The most terrifyingly overpowered vengeful ghost in history! Capable of toppling gods and bringing whole nations to ruin! Spends most of his time trying to neg and gaslight a teenager into his edgelord phase, then takes said teenager growing out of it with the approximate maturity of Flowey from Undertale.
He bore a tired expression, traces of blood still on his face, left there by White No-Face. Other than that, Jun Wu was covered in innumerous injuries all over, big and small. It wasn’t that they were not serious, but White No-Face’s wounds were more serious, so much so that his body was ripped apart, his form dispersed, leaving behind only that shattered cry-smiling face.
Hmm. That does sound like he was very visibly, physically destroyed by Jun Wu, yes.
After catching his breath, he spoke up. “My Lord, I want to beg something of you.”
“Permitted,” Jun Wu said.
“Aren’t you going to ask what it is?” Xie Lian asked.
“Either way, you would be asking for a gift upon return to the Heavenly Court, so whatever this is might just as well be my gift to you for your returning to the ranks.”
The corners of Xie Lian’s lips twitched and he rose to his feet, looking Jun Wu squarely in the eyes.
He said, with the utmost respect, “Then, pray My Lord banish me to the mortal realm once more.”
...God, it really is his solution to all awkward situations.
"I've committed an unforgivable crime. Pray my lord banish me to the mortal realm once more."
"Well, you seem repentant, and you didn't actually kill anyone who wasn't already dead or soon to be anyway, so—"
"My lord will just have to banish me to the mortal realm once more."
“So, as punishment, I pray My Lord will grant me a cursed shackle, no, two cursed shackles. One to seal away my spiritual powers, another to disperse all my luck and fortune.”
.........
"Xianle, this punishment seems disproportionate to the crime."
"My lord is right, of course. He should put me in bondage, then banish me to the mortal realm."
I love that we spend so long waiting for the full story behind That Time Xie Lian Declared Very Short-Lived War on Heaven, and then the answer turns out to be, "Oh, that just straight-up never happened. ...But honestly, it'd have been an improvement over what he actually did."
“General Xuan Zhen is great! General Xuan Zhen is generous and kind!”
Xie Lian was speechless.
To use “generous and kind” to praise Mu Qing, were those devotees for real?
Oh come on, Xie Lian, that's just mean.
Flashback arcs continue to be best arcs. ♥ God that was good.
No new squares checked this time (though "lovingly-detailed tragedy and suffering" has gotten a hell of a workout), but this volume has left me surprisingly torn about a square I thought was cut-and-dry. I figured "Main Character Death" was a bust for this novel, and that's held true so far—as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't count unless the MC dies an actual death of the typically-permanent kind—but... damn, that swords scene made every possible effort short of that to qualify anyway. Explicitly establishing that being fatally wounded while immortal "counts" as death by the setting's mechanics! For the express purpose of killing the main character, specifically, 100 times in short succession! In a manner that destroys his body thoroughly enough to render him physically and mentally nonfunctional for an extended period of time, even.
On the one hand, it definitely doesn't actually count as checking off the square. But I keep feeling like I ought to give some kind of recognition for such an astonishingly above-and-beyond effort to unlock the achievement anyway, so...
Let's just call that an honorable mention.
