If you think that Lan WangJi's (of FOD) love and devotion to Wei Wuxian is admirable enough to categorize as "eternal" and unrivaled, Hua Cheng's devotion to Xie Lian is in a completely whole different level. This is why I say flashbacks are important, while sharing events in the past with XL you slowly unveil the strength of his feelings, how something simple can turn into life-time commitment.

In the end, I just stopped feeling bad for Xie Lian because of how bad the story was trying to make you feel for him. Heedless of warnings to stay away from Hua Cheng, Xie Lian continues to cross paths with the nonchalant and intelligent ghost king as he becomes increasingly enveloped in the affairs of the three realms of heaven, earth, and ghost. The MC was a god and still is, but the thing is, that he suffered very much and lost his reputation.

Everyone loved it, rarely anyone would rate it bellow 4 stars, I was convinced I was about to find my next obsession. And the worst thing about it was that HC pretty much validated his flawed thinking by saying that XL should continue to do whatever he wanted because he was right. The entirety of Book 2 was a flashback of XL's life from before he ascended to just before he was banished, and it is entirely pointless. This was to pay off the debt incurred by his quite dramatic entrance to the heavens that causes some, uh, structural damages.

I was also in a reading slump at the time, so reading something different for a change really perked me up. Among the artifacts is a tablet with details the life of a Lieutenant from the army which opposed Banyue. I have no idea how MXTX could grasp it, but her depiction of XL is similar how people simply grow up, when you reach a certain age you understand how different you've become, how you take a totally different approach on things.The hype surrounding it and the praise it received, along with the genre being Shounen Ai instead of Yaoi, made me expect a lot from it.