The Book That Broke Me | Heaven Official's Blessing

Coming into this volume, I received numerous comments wishing me luck… so that left me feeling great starting up my 340-something pages of Heaven Official’s Blessing book six. After finishing this volume, I can easily agree, this is one of the most heart wrenching entries in this series.

Barely getting into the book had me at the edge of my seat. Trekking up the mountain only to be crushed by an avalanche cause by Xie Lian’s bumbling former servants and awaken in a strange cave. Hua Cheng was acting so weird in this entire section, for a while, I worried that it wasn’t actually him. A lot of creepiness happens in these chapters and I was feeling like Hua Cheng was showing that he was actually this super crazy psycho stalker this whole time… take the thousands of statues and wall paintings as you will. The tension that was built up when Feng Xin and Mu Qing were dragging Xie Lian throughout the cave was so good. The feeling that Hua Cheng was going to catch them at any moment had me reading so fast.

A lot came out while inside the cave. Hua Cheng shockingly has been following Xie Lian for hundreds of years. The two junior officials that have been joining Xie Lian are actually Feng Xin and Mu Qing - I always thought that their actions reflected the older two’s and welp, this certainly explains why. And White No-Face is trying to make it to the kiln to increase their depleted power. With all the not-so-great things surfacing, we at least got the breakthrough with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian admitting they have feelings for each other!

Once we get to the kiln, and get a surprise first actual kiss, they jump hand in hand into the kiln. When Xie Lian ends up in the kiln without Hua Cheng and White No-Face standing in front of him, I was ready for an epic fight! Instead, I got poor Xie Lian getting re-traumatized by that mask before the start of arc 4!

Once again, we get flashbacks. This one is to right after the kingdom of Xianle has burned, Xie Lian is a banished god, and the group is on the run. Here is where all the deep-seated trauma comes in. This arc is rough and evokes a lot of feelings.

I felt even more annoyance towards the (former) king. As he gets more and more sick, he keeps silent. It’s not until he is coughing up blood that his wife says something and begs her son to get medicine so he doesn’t die! This annoyed me because instead of catching this early, he waits until a critical point and adds to much stress to Xie Lain and the others. At that point I was kinda hoping he would just die and that stress would be done with. He was so ungrateful for all Xie Lian was doing for them so I didn’t think he deserved Xie Lian pushing himself past his own morals in order to try and get his medicine.

Mu Qing leaving the group was rough to read. I knew he would leave eventually, but to have it be so abrupt was just a huge blow. The is only made worse by seeing him re-appear at the mountain and having to be the one to force Xie Lian off the mountain. The mountain seen had my mind swirling. When he found it and was finally seeing some sense of happiness for the first time in forever, that whole herd of Heavenly Officials think they can throw him out because they want the mountain instead. They were scared of him being stronger than them, I was trilled when Xie Lian destroyed all these martial gods with a stick! Then Mu Qing has to come around and ruin everything!

White No-Face picks a great time to show up, but at least we get to see that cute little ghost fire again, it’s just so cute how he tries to burn so bright for Xie Lian. The devotion is there! Even enough to transform him into a wrath just to protect Xie Lian. The temple scene single handedly broke me. Gathering a group of people to infect with a disease with only one cure, a cure that involves killing someone, so they will stab Xie Lian was possibly the most cruel thing I have seen. Breaking Xie Lian’s trust in people, proving that if pushed far enough, people will always do what they need to survive. My only question is, Xie Lian cannot die, so how can the stabbings count as a kill? I get that they are in a vital point and any normal mortal would die from it, but not Xie Lian.

This starts the downfall of his relationship with Feng Xin after White No-Face starts following him everywhere. Watching Xie Lian fall apart was hard. I hated watching him push Feng Xin away because of his fear of the friend leaving him first. I knew the dream that start was gonna come back in a more real way… Reading breakdown after breakdown mentally wore me down. After so many set backs and loses, waking up to find his parents bodies and him trying to hang himself was by far the second hardest scene to get through. Finding out this was how Rouye was made, yet is such a sweet and gentle spiritual weapon made me appreciate Rouye more.

Here we get a new Hua Cheng form with Wuming. The young solider dressed in black who will obey every order (for the most part) Xie Lian gives him. Those two go on their adventures to release the spirits of Human Face Disease. Seeing that Wuming was so dedicated to Xie Lian that he threw himself to the plague and destroyed himself in order to save Xie Lian. Proving that he will indeed die for his God. I need to know how strong his devotion for Xie Lian is because how can he, as a wrath, take out Human Face Disease?

The pain of seeing his last follower dying for him took a toll on him and Xie Lian begging to be banished in the same breath that Jun Wu welcomes him back to the Heavens proves that all this trauma is still dragging him down. I will say, from the very beginning of this series, I wanted to know the story behind the speed run of Xie Lian’s second banishment, and boy was I not disappointed in Xie Lian and Jun Wu taking this opportunity to fight each other once more.

Ending with Xie Lian’s terrible luck on full display and seeing the red flower and just seeming to know who it symbolizes was the perfect ending.