The five stars is purely based on the english translation thus far, and not on the original chinese novel that should be reviewed on jjwcx instead, as the quality of the writing and translation is evident. As I've read the whole novel, and not read to halfway and skipped to the last chapter, I think my grasp on the novel's characterisation and plot is fairly solid.

Probably because the plot and characters hit a lot of the tropes that I like, reading this story was a very enjoyable experience for me. The MC's past is hinted at and slowly unfolds in a series of emotionally devastating flashbacks, revealing his tremulous fall from grace: from his position of coddled crown prince beloved by all, to being able to pick food off the ground and eat it without a care. His acceptance and resignation to his current state of life is something that hurts both me and the ML.

As the translation is currently up to chapter 5, the ML has yet to appear, but the ML's characterisation is still very interesting: beginning with the impression of that suave all-knowing, all-powerful seme, to gradually unveiling his insecurities and his reasons for struggling so hard to become powerful. The reasons for the ML's devotion start out opaque, but the more of their past interactions you see, the more it's understandable; culminating in that flashback where he says 'I still have a beloved person in this world' and the ML's previous skittishness all makes sense.

I personally really like both the MC and the ML's characters and personalities. MC on the surface seems like a soft, innocent angel, but in reality that's all because he's been worn down by 800 years of struggling to climb his way out of the mud. He lets most things slide without a care because he's long stopped caring about what other people think of him and has mostly become numb to his own suffering. But the MC has a steadfast nature and an unbending will and he's shaken out of this numbness by the ML.

On the other hand, the ML starts out appearing like the perfect boyfriend: ultra smooth, ultra powerful, and always like he's in control of the situation. But that's just how he's built himself to appear in front of the MC. Because he's devoted 800 years to becoming someone who can protect the MC from other people's cruelties and yet knows he's failed already because the MC has already become accustomed to pain in those 800 years. Behind the perfect facade, the ML is still that young boy who worships the MC with his heart on tenterhooks and never dared contemplate that his god might love him back.

2.5 - 3 stars... This novel admittedly gave me a lot of frustration, so I need to relieve that here. I tried really hard to like it but it felt like I was forcing myself to read it and that is never a good sign.

Overall I was desperate to fall in love with this novel but couldn't. That frustration was furthered upon seeing people make fun of the characters as dumb gays or making incredibly elaborate fan theories to justify why characters act inconsistently (ooc even), and why certain things happened, when a lot of it was just ill-conceived writing.

I want to end on a more positive note by saying that I have the utmost respect for MXTX and I know that she put a lot of work into tgcf. Thanks for reading and I hope people find this constructive.

I've just got to say, physically reading this was exhausting. Not because of the storyline, but because I read all 252 chapters in a short amount of time cause I was so freaking invested in the whole story!

This follows the story of Xie Lian, our bubbly protagonist, and his adventures after ascending to Heaven for the 3rd time (you've got it rough buddy). On his first assignment, he meets our Male Lead (who has me sweating). Hua Cheng is literally the smoothest man you'll ever meet. If you're looking for a fluffy, angst, fantasy, bl, story driven novel. Boy, you picked up a fantastic one. Flashbacks get tiring sometimes, but they play such an important role in the storyline that it's SO worth it. Story is extremely well-written and let's not forget the romance. Based on this author, most of the book will be fluffy pinning (which I'm actually perfectly fine with, but if you aren't into slow burn be cautious), but they get together quicker than in GDC and Scum Villain (at least that's what I thought ¯_ (ツ) _/¯)

More information on the 2 Main Characters:

Xie Lian

Spoiler

A cute old grandpa. No one can tell me otherwise. He's one of the oldest gods in Heaven and also the one that's been through the most. Only though so much hardships did he get to the him he is now, a kind, understanding, logical, and non-biased angel. We need more people like him in the world. I just wished he valued himself more. I want him to be able to happily smile and joke again. There's one line later on in the novel where Hua Cheng does something for him that causes him to start laughing, and he just says along the lines of, "Thank you for making me realize how simple and wonderful the act of laughing is." *ugly sobbing*

Hua Cheng

Spoiler

I LOVE YOU. Honestly, so dedicated and a huge romantic. He loves our MC so much and is completely loyal to him. I enjoy his small gestures and hints that tells us that he adores our MC. So kind but everybody excluding our MC thinks he some malicious and sinister demon (in which he some ways is). The thing about his devotion is, when MC finds out about how the other harbors feelings for him, they way he found out made me kinda have chills for a moment. The whole atmosphere of the place made me think like I was in a horror movie and I had a wild murderer chasing after me. Feng Xin Mu Qing, I feel you. But in all honesty, a great confession scene nonetheless.

This novel's main theme can be described using two question.

"Are gods really as gracious and virtuous as we worship them to be?"

and

"Is mankind really worth it?"

Overall, this novel was a fantastic read and if you can't read the Chinese chapters, english translation is slowing getting there, the wait is so worth it. One moment I'm screaming my sister to insanity from the fluff, and the next I'm curled up in my bed sobbing my eyes away. I really love this author and her works, and hope you'll too ❤

I'm usually a huge fan of this author (5 stars for both GDC & Scum Villain), but this book was a huge disappointment. The high point for this author is her ability to create likable and compelling characters who travel through a fantastic world with a beautifully crafted storyline. She may have been overly ambitious with this novel. The larger cast of character with multiple boring plot lines makes it feel long, slow, detached at the same time.

The issue may stem from the MC and ML being uninteresting in themselves. MC is an typical hero (similar to WWX) who always tries to do the right thing, but sometimes fails because that's just how life works. ML is a perfect, powerful, and utterly devoted husband type who watches over MC, with his only weakness being his inability to write calligraphy. The fact that the combination of the two of them as the most powerful couple in the entire world makes all their problems seem trivial. There's also very little relationship development since the ML has been devoted to MC for 800 years and the MC is clearly in love with ML within the first 30 chapters.

She uses and abandons great characters throughout the series: Yi Rong becomes comedic commentary after acting out his part in book 1 despite being one of the 4 evils, Feng Xin and Mu Qing become increasingly petting/childish after giving them great background story in book 2, the Black Water Demon becomes s*upid and worthless after acting out his ingenious plot in book 3, and every side arc MC collects random children/other pets etc.

For me, the biggest turning point where this book goes from a 5 star to a 3 star is chapter 124. Chapters 90-124 was amazing - the character development, sense of mystery and discovery the reader gets as they follow the MC's logic/deduction was suspenseful and rewarding. However, she completely dropped the ball with the aftermath.

Spoiler

Perhaps I am biased since Shi Qing Xuan is my favorite character, but how she handled the aftermath of that plotline was atrocious. There's no explanation as to what happened between "please kill me" in a dungeon with the Black Water Demon in ch124 and "life is good" as a beggar in imperial city in ch200+.

If this novel shortened by 50%, removed some irrelevant monster of the day side plots, reduced the cast of rotating comedic side characters, introduced some kind of high stakes friction between the MC and ML, this novel would have been much better.

I don't use this phrase lightly, but this book is a literary masterpiece.

I found the first ten chapters in English, and the premise was captivating enough that I gave the rest of it (200+ chapters!) a shot with my banana Chinese. That's how good it was, that I was willing to invest that much more time and effort in reading a book written in a mother tongue I am unfortunately not very well-versed in.

It was worth it.

The English translation is quality work, but invariably a lot of the original nuance and tone gets lost in translation. If you are able, I would recommend that you read the work in the original Chinese it was written in- to preserve as much of the hilarity and heartbreak that the author managed to skilfully convey as possible. Even if not, the countless plot twists, the strong supporting cast, and of course the stepwise progression of the main couple's romance work together to create a story that I really believe can transcend the language barrier to move any reader's heart.

The English fandom for this work is sadly minute at the moment, especially compared to the author's other works (ahem GDC I'm looking at you) I assume due to the dearth of translated chapters. Don't get me wrong, I love that other piece, but (this is my personal opinion) it pales in comparison to this one. If Baidu is to be believed, most of the Chinese fandom agrees with me on this. So I really hope that with time, this novel will receive the acclaim and fandom size it truly deserves.

I really tried to finish this. I really did. But in all honesty, I couldn't bear it any longer. I came into this novel having seen the absolutely amazing fanart out there and everyone praising how great these characters are. And to be honest, I didn't mind it at first.

In the beginning, the comedy was funny and the main character was interesting and likable. I can't say the same for the side characters though because other than Nan Feng and Fu Yao you don't get much.

And there's where the problems start. The more you learn about the Xie Lian and, later, Hua Cheng, the more unlikable those two start to become. Their romance is awkward and it never fits in the scenes that they are in. Together they are just too OP over all the other characters to the point where it becomes condescending and annoying. And it really doesn't make sense how HC who is the Ghost King and natural enemy of the gods could walk around and hang out with XL without any problems from the other gods. Don't they think that it's strange that XL and HC are so cozy? Wouldn't they be suspicious of both of them? Why isn't there a rule about gods being friends with ghosts if their jobs are to eliminate dangerous ghosts???

Spoiler

Hell at one point XL is walking around the Ghost City and sees a butcher chopping up humans bodies... but he is just grossed out by the sight of it. Shouldn't he be against something like this? Shouldn't after he comes back to the ghost city he should kill the butcher who is killing humans? Isn't protecting humans his job? Why is he okay with all of the ghost in the ghost city as a heavenly official???

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT:

I'll start with the things that I liked.

The side characters:

After the story gets moving (which takes forever well into the 3rd book) the side characters get more fleshed out. Especially the Wind and Water brothers. Their stories in what the Water brother did for his younger brother to protect him from having a horrible fate and the way that he died doing pretty much what the Xie Lain was trying to do but succeeded in where XL failed, was honestly the most badass thing. I was really sad that he had to die but I was cheering him on the whole way.

And even though I thought the Wind Master was annoying at first, he eventually grew on me and every time he showed up I was honestly wishing this story was about him and his brother instead.

Qi Rong was also a really fun character. Even though he is shown to be really horrible and detestable, he is really funny and after a while, I was starting to agree with some of the stuff he was saying about XL. He was definitely more interesting than XL and I'm sad that he didn't have much screen time.

.... And that's it. That's all I liked.

The things that I disliked was pretty much everything else.

The MC was OP as hell and came off as condescending and selfish throughout the entire story. Like this is his story, but he doesn't even have any motivations or a goal or anything! Like he says he wants to help the common people, but he hasn't done that at all! The only time he has helped anyone is because either someone told him to (a mission), he was curious (the whole desert adventure), or he needed something like food or supplies from the villagers, so he helps them out in exchange for praying at his temple or giving him food.

Not once did he go out of his way to help anyone out of selflessness. But somehow I'm supposed to believe that he is the kindest purest person? Even when he promised to take care of Yang Ling, he never paid one ounce of attention to the kid until HC disguised himself as him.

Which is another thing. Whenever XL and HC are together they completely ruin whatever scene they are in with their out of place romance. Numerous times they are put in dangerous situations and the tension is supposed to be high. But every time, without fail, the two of them go off to the side to flirt for no reason. And it's always inappropriate.

Like every time HC comes around XL completely loses interest in his friends and the people he is supposed to be protecting to fawn all over HC. Like when his cousin QR possessed a little boy's father, during the time when the ghosts go into heat, he threatens to eat the boy as he is running away. Instead of going after QR and saving the defenseless child, XL turns around and tries to help HC who is a grown-ass man and the Ghost King on top of that! And the kid is literally forgotten about and in the hands of a psychotic human eating ghost. XL really has no priorities to anyone but himself and HC.

And this sort of thing happens all the time. XL gets into a new adventure that has nothing to do with him, HC shows up to cause some awkward flirting, XL and HC solves the mystery in seconds while dismissing everyone else and pretty much calling them idiots, some action happens, some more mystery happens but nothing is solved this time because XL becomes bored and goes home.

It's like when the Wind Master was kidnapped by He Xuan after his brother was killed. XL could've looked for him or show some sort of worry for him, but he went home to find HC and romanced more and forgot all about his friend who is probably in danger.

The story is really flawed too. 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. Aside from telling us how HC and XL met, the flashback didn't tell us anything we weren't told already. If anything I think the story should have started out with the flashback and worked with improving XL's character and making him learn from his mistakes. All it did, though, was make me think that XL is a stubborn idiot who could have avoided major disasters if he just listened to people. 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. (Except he wasn't and things blew up in his face because he was wrong about everything.)

I really wanted to like this story and I started out enjoying it, but it was a real struggle after a while because XL and HC were just the worst people in the story. But hey if you like nonsensical and inappropriate romance with OP main characters who have little regard for everyone around them, then be my guest. But I'm tapping out here.

I really tried to finish this. I really did. But in all honesty, I couldn't bear it any longer. I came into this novel having seen the absolutely amazing fanart out there and everyone praising how great these characters are. And to be honest, I didn't mind it at first.

In the beginning, the comedy was funny and the main character was interesting and likable. I can't say the same for the side characters though because other than Nan Feng and Fu Yao you don't get much.

And there's where the problems start. The more you learn about the Xie Lian and, later, Hua Cheng, the more unlikable those two start to become. Their romance is awkward and it never fits in the scenes that they are in. Together they are just too OP over all the other characters to the point where it becomes condescending and annoying. And it really doesn't make sense how HC who is the Ghost King and natural enemy of the gods could walk around and hang out with XL without any problems from the other gods. Don't they think that it's strange that XL and HC are so cozy? Wouldn't they be suspicious of both of them? Why isn't there a rule about gods being friends with ghosts if their jobs are to eliminate dangerous ghosts???

Spoiler

Hell at one point XL is walking around the Ghost City and sees a butcher chopping up humans bodies... but he is just grossed out by the sight of it. Shouldn't he be against something like this? Shouldn't after he comes back to the ghost city he should kill the butcher who is killing humans? Isn't protecting humans his job? Why is he okay with all of the ghost in the ghost city as a heavenly official???

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT:

I'll start with the things that I liked.

The side characters:

After the story gets moving (which takes forever well into the 3rd book) the side characters get more fleshed out. Especially the Wind and Water brothers. Their stories in what the Water brother did for his younger brother to protect him from having a horrible fate and the way that he died doing pretty much what the Xie Lain was trying to do but succeeded in where XL failed, was honestly the most badass thing. I was really sad that he had to die but I was cheering him on the whole way.

And even though I thought the Wind Master was annoying at first, he eventually grew on me and every time he showed up I was honestly wishing this story was about him and his brother instead.

Qi Rong was also a really fun character. Even though he is shown to be really horrible and detestable, he is really funny and after a while, I was starting to agree with some of the stuff he was saying about XL. He was definitely more interesting than XL and I'm sad that he didn't have much screen time.

.... And that's it. That's all I liked.

The things that I disliked was pretty much everything else.

The MC was OP as hell and came off as condescending and selfish throughout the entire story. Like this is his story, but he doesn't even have any motivations or a goal or anything! Like he says he wants to help the common people, but he hasn't done that at all! The only time he has helped anyone is because either someone told him to (a mission), he was curious (the whole desert adventure), or he needed something like food or supplies from the villagers, so he helps them out in exchange for praying at his temple or giving him food.

Not once did he go out of his way to help anyone out of selflessness. But somehow I'm supposed to believe that he is the kindest purest person? Even when he promised to take care of Yang Ling, he never paid one ounce of attention to the kid until HC disguised himself as him.

Which is another thing. Whenever XL and HC are together they completely ruin whatever scene they are in with their out of place romance. Numerous times they are put in dangerous situations and the tension is supposed to be high. But every time, without fail, the two of them go off to the side to flirt for no reason. And it's always inappropriate.

Like every time HC comes around XL completely loses interest in his friends and the people he is supposed to be protecting to fawn all over HC. Like when his cousin QR possessed a little boy's father, during the time when the ghosts go into heat, he threatens to eat the boy as he is running away. Instead of going after QR and saving the defenseless child, XL turns around and tries to help HC who is a grown-ass man and the Ghost King on top of that! And the kid is literally forgotten about and in the hands of a psychotic human eating ghost. XL really has no priorities to anyone but himself and HC.

And this sort of thing happens all the time. XL gets into a new adventure that has nothing to do with him, HC shows up to cause some awkward flirting, XL and HC solves the mystery in seconds while dismissing everyone else and pretty much calling them idiots, some action happens, some more mystery happens but nothing is solved this time because XL becomes bored and goes home.

It's like when the Wind Master was kidnapped by He Xuan after his brother was killed. XL could've looked for him or show some sort of worry for him, but he went home to find HC and romanced more and forgot all about his friend who is probably in danger.

The story is really flawed too. 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. Aside from telling us how HC and XL met, the flashback didn't tell us anything we weren't told already. If anything I think the story should have started out with the flashback and worked with improving XL's character and making him learn from his mistakes. All it did, though, was make me think that XL is a stubborn idiot who could have avoided major disasters if he just listened to people. 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. (Except he wasn't and things blew up in his face because he was wrong about everything.)

I really wanted to like this story and I started out enjoying it, but it was a real struggle after a while because XL and HC were just the worst people in the story. But hey if you like nonsensical and inappropriate romance with OP main characters who have little regard for everyone around them, then be my guest. But I'm tapping out here.

Okay I don't even know where to start, but basically THIS IS A MASTERPIECE !

Aaaah there're so much to say, it's definitely my favorite MXTX novel!

A manhua is also available! The art style is insane omg go have a look!

(Sorry this is my first review & my english sucks)

Okay, even though there's only one chapter translated it's a bit ridiculous to cast votes already because the actual novel hasn't been completely published by the writer so there's no telling how this novel will go. Rating this a one star is poor judgement on whoever that casted that vote so these five stars is in hopes to counter that.

in terms of the novel, from where I've mtl'd up to, the plot progresses quite seamlessly. Intrigue and some stellar 'aww' heart-melting (in a good way) vibes are there too which is always a big plus in my books. Just like the writer's previous works (Founder of Diabolism, Self-Saving Scum), you don't get the full picture at once but as you progress through the chapters, pieces of info weave together a beautiful story with much more depth that you'd assume. Both MC and ML are both very enigmatic, and together they're one of the most adorable couples (even if they're not together at this point of the novel so far) I get the pleasure of reading.

In this genre of BL novels, I find it challenging to get the chance to read well thought-out novels that can juggle engaging plot and warm fuzzies so stumbling upon this writer and their works is an absolute blessing for me. I have high hopes for the writer and from what I've been reading, my faith isn't misplaced ;)

(I'll edit this review once more chapters are released, both raws and tl'd lol - one star ratings off the bat for any novel drives me up the wall a bit, especially for a novel with so much potential!)

In terms of the translation, it's readable and flows well so no complaints from me. I'm not sure about the updating schedule considering only chapter one has been posted but I don't think the translator, Evangeline, intends to drop this. Also, many thanks to them for picking this novel as their first (?) project!!

All in all, give both the translator and this novel a chance, I say!

Okay I don't even know where to start, but basically THIS IS A MASTERPIECE !

Aaaah there're so much to say, it's definitely my favorite MXTX novel!

A manhua is also available! The art style is insane omg go have a look!

(Sorry this is my first review & my english sucks)