"If your dream is to save the common people, then my dream is only you."
— Hua Cheng, to Xie Lian
According to the words of the fandom, Hua Cheng and Xie Lian invented love.
General
- You can't get any more Opposites Attract than a romantic relationship between a literal god and a demon.
- They have each have an Affectionate Nickname for each other: San Lang for Hua Cheng, and Dianxia or Gege for Xie Lian.
- Xie Lian, throughout the course of his narration of the novel, can literally never shut up about how attractive Hua Cheng is.
- The fact that the two of them literally have a Red String of Fate on their fingers.
- "Exchanging Spiritual Energy" at this point is a plain old Double Entendre for kissing when it comes to these two.
- Hua Cheng and Xie Lian rather publicly announce their relationship by exchanging spiritual energy in front of an entire crowd of shocked onlookers during a battle.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: These two can never shut up about each other when around other people, and after they finally confess their feelings they find it increasingly difficult to stop "exchanging spiritual energy", especially when other Heavenly Officials are around.
- Everyone from the Heavens, to the Mortal Realm, to the Ghost Realm, are all scared shitless of Hua Cheng. Xie Lian just thinks he's absolutely adorable.
- Hua Cheng apparently tried to look for Xie Lian in those eight hundred years, but only came close many times before the two went past one another thanks to Xie Lian's terrible luck.
- Hua Cheng has the power to call forth a Rain of Blood, which he intentionally allows to drop on other characters. Xie Lian, of course, must be shielded by him with his umbrella. If Hua Cheng can't get to Xie Lian with an umbrella, he calls forth a rain of flower petals instead. How romantic is that?
- The extras are just full of cute stories of the two living a happy marital life with one another.
- During the Bilibili conference, there was a performance featuring two male dancers dressed like Hua Cheng and Xie Lian with the two of them seductively dancing around each other. According to this video
, "In the language of interpretive dance, this means they smashed." - A lot of the official art for the manhua and donghua are not subtle where Hua Cheng's feelings are concerned as every piece has him staring longingly at Xie Lian.
Main Story
Book One
- One of the supposed "rumors" about Hua Cheng is that he became a sentimental fool after his beloved passed away.
- Their first meeting in the novel involves Hua Cheng guiding Xie Lian, who is dressed as a bride, out of a bridal carriage towards the area Xie Lian is to investigate as part of his mission. Note that Hua Cheng is always dressed completely in red as well, which is the traditional color for Chinese wedding clothes.
- In the donghua, as Hua Cheng guides Xie Lian out of the sedan, Xie Lian trips on his dress and falls onto his chest. As Xie Lian looks up, his cheeks are visibly flushed. It even parallels the scene of Xie Lian saving Hua Cheng as a child.
- Xie Lian reveals to the other heavenly officials he ran into Hua Cheng. The others are only horrified and wonder what he wants with Xie Lian, while Xie Lian's only thought is to think how Hua Cheng's name really suits him.
- After Xie Lian offers for San Lang to stay at the Puqi shrine that night they both find one bamboo mat that they would both have to squish together in order to share it. Both of them are more than happy to share.
- When Fu Yao and Nan Feng arrive at Pu Qi shrine, Fu Yao is flabbergasted as he asks Xie Lian if he slept on the same mattress as San Lang.
- Trying to out San Lang as not who he seems, Fu Yao and Nan Feng put him through multiple tests, one of them being he drinks some water that will reveal his true form. San Lang refuses to drink it and only does so when he asks Xie Lian if it is safe. Then he chugs it down without hesitation. However, the way this all started was from San Lang and Xie Lian sharing some water, with Fu Yao stopping it so San Lang didn't have an Indirect Kiss with Xie Lian.
- As he's tossed into the air by a tornado, Xie Lian asks Ruo Ye to grab onto something "strong and reliable". Ruo Ye pulls up Hua San Lang and wraps the two up together.
- San Lang sucking the blood from Xie Lian's hand where he was stung by the snake. The donghua and manhua make this scene look incredibly sensual from Xie Lian's point of view, with the manhua even giving him a Luminescent Blush.
- When Xie Lian falls into the Sinner's Pit, Hua Cheng catches him, in bridal style of course.
- As the two settle back down in Puqi Shrine, Xie Lian tells Hua Cheng that no matter what he looks like or who he is, as long as he's nice to him, that's all he really cares about. Then the next morning he wakes up with Hua Cheng gone, but with a ring and necklace around his neck.
Book Two
- Shi Qingxuan is made into the unfortunate Third Wheel in the gambling den when Hua Cheng teaches Xie Lian how to throw dice. The lesson involved far more touching and flirting than was strictly necessary...
- Hua Cheng attempts to gift Xie Lian his entire armory after he sees how absolutely enraptured Xie Lian is looking at all the weapons. It later is accidentally set on fire by Xie Lian but eh, semantics.
- Recalling that Xie Lian still owes him a reward, Xie Lian gives his half-eaten mantou bun and Hua Cheng happily claims his prize. As Xie Lian and the group make to leave, he looks back to Hua Cheng who smiles and takes a bite from the bun. Xie Lian blushes and runs, afterward believing his elevated heartbeat had to be from running so fast.
- As Xie Lian enters Paradise Manor, there is a troupe of beautiful women dancing and they lightly tease Xie Lian. However, he doesn't pay attention to any of them, and his attention is instead focused on Hua Cheng who's seated at the back of the main hall.
- During their meal when Xie Lian mentions that his path of cultivation requires full abstinence, Hua Cheng "displayed an unreadable expression of either displeasure or annoyance".
- When he was a general for the Ban Yue kingdom Xie Lian gave himself a fake name which he claims was just some random names he put together, which was Hua Xie. Hua Cheng (San Lang at the time) is noted to be smiling in amusement when he overhears this.
- As a teen when Hua Cheng was protecting Xie Lian from the flower demons, they all took forms of naked women. However, Hua Cheng doesn't react to any of them, so each tries to take on a form they think he'd be attracted to. One demon then takes on a form that causes Hua Cheng to stop breathing and he nearly goes berserk once he snaps out of it. Based on his anger, it can be inferred that the form the demon took was likely a naked Xie Lian.
- To protect Hua Cheng before he falls into mania, Xie Lian has Hua Cheng cut off a lock of his hair and ties it onto a random finger. According to the notes, this act was usually done during the traditional wedding rituals between spouses symbolizing, "Til Death Do Us Part".
- The play that gets acted out when Xie Lian is chosen during the Banquet game reenacts the events that took place during the Ban Yue arc. The one small criticism Xie Lian has for the show was that "the two protagonists seemed to be overly close". Including the many little gestures they share like: hooking arms, hugging shoulders, being carried, and it's only then does Xie Lian thinks about how they may have come off to outside viewers.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: During the Mid-Autumn festival when the gods are all in a competition to see who could get the most offered lamps (though it is more of a competition to get second place to Jun Wu), Hua Cheng personally makes sure that Xie Lian beats even Jun Wu in the competition by sending him 3,000 lanterns. Not only that, he sends them after all the other lanterns have been counted and the officials have begun to applaud Shi Wudu as the apparent winner as a Grand Finale to the competition.
- Xie Lian goes all Green-Eyed Monster towards... himself.Hua Cheng: (to some curious villagers) My beloved is a brave, noble, gracious, virtuous person. I've looked up to him since I was really young. But, I wanted to catch up to him more, and become a stronger, better man for him. I want to protect him.
- Despite owning a large, extravagant mansion in Ghost City, Hua Cheng only considers it a place to sleep, and the run-down shack that is Puji Shrine as his home. Why? Because Xie Lian lives in Puqi Shrine.Hua Cheng: A home has a family. A place where someone lives alone is not a home.
- As if surprising your beloved with a ring while you're courting isn't romantic enough, the ring Hua Cheng gives Xie Lian actually contains his own ashes from his death. Those ashes are the only weakness of a Supreme Demon.
- Hua Cheng giving Xie Lian an Underwater Kiss. When he recalls it during Lan Chang's accusations, he blushes at the memory.
Book Three
- Like the Gambler's Den, Xie Lian gets closer than necessary to Hua Chen when trying to teach him how to improve his calligraphy. He only stops when he notices Hua Cheng is playing with him by not following his hand movements.
- Hua Cheng has Xie Lian's name tattooed on his inner left arm, but because it's in his handwriting, it's not that clear.
- True to his word, Hua Cheng never did forget Xie Lian.
- When Ming Yi moves closer to Xie Lian to avoid Shi Qingxuan Hua Cheng is notably angry at this as he glares at the martial god. Although it could be due to the fact he know's it's He Xuan so he doesn't want him to get closer to Xie Lian.
- In order to figure out if the Venerable of Empty Words was amongst them, Hua Cheng and Xie Lian exchange their verbal passwords to their communications array. However, when Hua Cheng whispers it into Xie Lian's ear he blushes and asks if Hua Cheng was telling him the truth and can't bring himself to say the password aloud.
- Xie Lian gets distracted by Hua Cheng switching from different outfits out of boredom and keeps complimenting him internally before snapping out of it.
- As he switches souls with Shi Qingxuan, Xie Lian's confident the Venerable of Empty Words wouldn't affect him, but once it yells "you will watch with your eyes wide open the person coming to seek you die right before you!" Xie Lian loses it and angrily yells at it to shut up as he kicks it as hard as he can.
- Before he switches, Hua Cheng is noted to be immediately against Xie Lian's idea to switch his soul with Shi Qingxuan's and tries to convince to not do it. When he does switch back, Hua Cheng still doesn't look pleased at what Xie Lian did.
- Shi Qingxuan screaming to Xie Lian that Hua Cheng was beating up Ming Yi but was doing nothing to him. Xie Lian realizes it's because the Wind Master was still in his body, so of course Hua Cheng would never lay a hand on him, and so Ming Yi became his next target.
- During a game of dice, after Shi Qingxuan and Mingyi win, Shi Qingxuan orders Hua Cheng and Xie Lian to strip. Xie Lian sounds like he would have rather done anything else besides that but nervously obliges alongside Hua Cheng.
- A golden litter comes by to pick up Xie Lian and a few onlookers especially women thought the litter was definitely for Hua Cheng's wife but haven't seen anyone else but him ride in it.
- After picking Xie Lian up and sitting closer than needed in the step litter, Hua Cheng casually asks Xie Lian, "Gege, want to get married?" He plays it off as a joke after seeing Xie Lian's expression, but the words stick with him and Xie Lian's mind starts to wander as he starts thinking that Hua Cheng didn't specify with who. He even offers for Xie Lian to live with him at Paradise Manor if Puqi shrine doesn't feel secure anymore.
- As the group make it back to Puqi shrine, they all stumble upon Hua Cheng who's working the field shirtles. Xie Lian immediately gets flustered and steps in front of Hua Cheng while yelling at Ming Yi and Shi Qingxuan to cover their eyes. Hua Cheng then tells Xie Lian to calm down.What was he all nervous for? Hua Cheng wasn't a lady, so what if he was labouring half naked?
- The coffin scene is filled with sexual tension:
- The two of them are stuck close together with little room to maneuver, and Xie Lian is trying so hard not to make the scene even more awkward. Even more so when Xie Lian later realizes he's now sporting an erection. He even realizes that Hua Cheng was likely hard as well.
- When they wash back up on the island, Xie Lian claims to Pei Ming the coffin was too small and he immediately points out that they had enough wood to make the coffin bigger if they wished. Xie Lian immediately changes the subject.
- Heck, you can feel the double entendre's in their entire conversation.Xie Lian: ...You on top and me on the bottom.
Hua Cheng: Isn't top and bottom the same?
- Xie Lian panicking and giving Hua Cheng CPR, but not realizing the other had already woken up before their lips touched. After he realizes this, he starts rambling that it wasn't what it looked like before bowing low and running away from Hua Cheng screaming his apologies. Hua Cheng then asks Xie Lian, "Don't do this to anyone else so casually in the future, otherwise..." (According to the author's notes, Hua Cheng was just playing dead to prank Xie Lian, but it immediately backfired on him.)
- As Xie Lian is forced out possessing Shi Qingxuan, Hua Cheng is holding his limp body and trying to hold him steady. Xie Lian immediately pulls Hua Cheng into a kiss and Hua Cheng is shocked for a moment before immediately reciprocating. This was all to borrow some more spiritual energy from the other, but there was a bit more making out and rolling on the floor than necessary.
- Hua Cheng and the ghosts in Ghost City being affected by a cycle where they all go mad with lust. Hua Cheng ends up locking Xie Lian and himself inside of a temple where they don't do much besides furiously making out. Afterwards Hua Cheng doesn't remember anything he did, and Xie Lian's too embarrassed to divulge that information to him.
- In order to see Yin Yu's memories through Hua Cheng's butterfly, Hua Cheng presses his forehead against Xie Lian's.
- Trying to pass as ghosts, Xie Lian claims he's a puppet master while Hua Cheng is his puppet. But when that disguise starts to fall apart, Hua Cheng claims he's the real puppet master and all of the female ghosts start trying to lean in and touch Xie Lian who hides behind a small Hua Cheng. As the ghosts say Xie Lian looks nice, Hua Cheng lifts Xie Lian's chin and says, "His temper is certainly nice, but my temper is bad. No one shall touch what I love except me."
- E-Ming growing bigger as Xie Lian praises and compliments the scimitar. Then Xie Lian decides to try and pass some spiritual energy to Hua Cheng. Then becomes too nervous and ends up kissing his forehead.
- Pei Ming asks the two why they have a red thread tied to their fingers and whether or not that would make walking around more difficult since it would snag onto everything around them. Hua Cheng then puts a camouflage on the string so it wouldn't catch onto anything, but leaves the knot tied onto their fingers, just in case. Later on Xie Lian tries to assure Feng Xin and Mu Qing that his red thread wasn't like the fabled red string of fate. However, once he tries to explain it, the two generals both shout that that was exactly what the red string of fate was. When they try and tell Xie Lian to get rid of the thread, Xie Lian resists as well as when they drag him away from Hua Cheng.
- The cave of ten-thousand god statues, each a memory that Hua Cheng has of Xie Lian. From Xie Lian's days as the Crown Prince, when he first descended, and even the flower one, which was the one in particular that startled Feng Xin and Mu Qing.
- The 33 Heavenly Officials who bullied Xie Lian all mysteriously are later defeated soundly by Hua Cheng and have their temples burned down in a single night.
- After Xie Lian purchases all the ghost fires from a vendor and sends them off, one remains even after he performed the proper ceremony. When Xie Lian asks it why it remains, the ghost fire tells him his beloved is still on this earth and refuses to move on because of them. This ghost fire is later revealed to be Hua Cheng.
Book Four
- Xie Lian seeing Hua Cheng again after escaping Mt. Tonglu and the first thing he does? He kisses him. In front of Feng Xin, Mu Qing, a bemused Pei Ming and curious Quan Yizhen. This was all to exchange spiritual energy of course!!
- Xie Lian being so distracted by the Rain Master's arrival he doesn't realize that the "farmer" who gave him his gift was Hua Cheng who even held Xie Lian's hands and squeezed it."It had to be said, this gesture was frivolous, and if it was done to a lady, then it'd be intentionally flirty."
- The two try and search for the Immortal Brocade and test it out by having Xie Lian wear it and Hua Cheng giving him a command. Naturally Hua Cheng has to tease Xie Lian and says they should "borrow spiritual power". This flusters Xie Lian who tosses the robe away concluding that it wasn't the one. Then he tries another but tells Hua Cheng he can't ask to borrow spiritual energies. So Hua Cheng orders, "Don't borrow spiritual powers from me." Xie Lian pauses before tearing the robe off saying it wasn't this one, but then Hua Cheng asks how they would know if it wasn't if Xie Lian didn't follow through on the command. So Xie Lian quickly pecks Hua Cheng, leading them both to conclude this wasn't the brocade and Hua Cheng stops teasing Xie Lian.
- As Guoshi questions Xie Lian on his relationship to Hua Cheng, he's initially wary as he remembers Hua Cheng as the child whom he read would bring misfortune to everyone near him and doesn't want Xie Lian to suffer anymore. Xie Lian does admit that Hua Cheng makes him happy and Guoshi eventually gets behind their relationship, claiming that as long as Xie Lian was happy he wasn't one to judge.
- Not only did Hua Cheng become a Supreme for Xie Lian such as tearing his eye out that later is placed into and birthing E-Ming, but the humans he saved lead him to ascend into godhood. But seeing that Xie Lian wasn't in heaven, he immediately fell and became the Ghost King instead.
- Hua Cheng jumps in front of Xie Lian blocking him from Jun Wu's stab with Fang Xin exclaiming that he refuses to see Xie Lian ever impaled on that sword ever again.
- Hua Cheng vanishing after he depleted all of his spiritual energy leading Xie Lian to attempt to "repay" him by exchanging their energies. When that doesn't work, Xie Lian starts to break down into tears with Hua Cheng holding him and promising he will always come back to him. As he starts to fade away, he mouths something to Xie Lian that he doesn't hear, but he attempts to hold him one last time. Then one silver butterfly floats around Xie Lian, pressing itself gently to his face as if kissing him.
- After one year of waiting for Hua Cheng, as Xie Lian arrives at Puqi shrine, he sees that there are lanterns flying up from it, and Hua Cheng standing beneath them as he releases it. Xie Lian immediately runs up and hugs Hua Cheng.
- The readers get a confirmation of Xie Lian and Hua Cheng consummating their relationship through Heavenly Eye who notes that there's a lot of evil energy that's now inside of Xie Lian as well as outside of him. Xie Lian blushes before the others could pick up on the implication.
- One of the last few lines of the story are how there was a scrap immortal god that had terrible luck if you prayed to him and a ghost king who had immense good luck but would rarely grace people with his presence if prayed to. But if the two were worshipped together, the ghost king would cancel out the scrap god's bad luck and prosperity would be brought to those who would pray to them.
Extras
- The birthday extra:
- Xie Lian tries to look for the perfect birthday gift for Hua Cheng, but ends up gifting the other a belt he had made with their likeness crudely stitched into it. Hua Cheng is so touched he immediately puts it on and tries to walk outside to show it off. Xie Lian has to beg him to at least turn it inside out if he wanted to wear it.
- One ghost even suggested a special potion to Xie Lian that could give him and Hua Cheng a child if they so desired. Xie Lian immediately turns it down.
- In the amnesia extra, a 17 year old Xie Lian is easily flustered around Hua Cheng, but can never understand why he finds him so handsome and why he's so nervous around him.
- An extra where one of Xie Lian's statues is brought to life... and it just so happens to be the particular one where he was affected by the flower pollen. They end up resolving the problem with each statue of Xie Lian getting a Hua Cheng statue to accompany them.
- A bed time story extra has Hua Cheng ask Xie Lian to read him a story... that sounds suspiciously similar to the entire story the reader's just went through, with some changes. Such as the "bride" for the Ghost King being curious at the two house's behind the house and the Ghost King telling him one house is unlocked by using, "something from my body that can be touched and a lot of it. The second house could only be unlocked by, "something from my body that can't be touched, but which is very hot", which leads to the two consummating their marriage. After finishing, Xie Lian wonders how this was considered a children's story when there were some arguably steamy scenes in it. Gets meta when MXTX even jokes that Hua Cheng was making Xie Lian read "doujinshi of your OOC selves!"
