Heaven Official's Blessing by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù

So, Xie Lian starts off seeming like a kindly, maybe-slightly-vapid, heavenly official/god (I will use them interchangeably) who lands himself a case (devotees pray to god to resolve their problems) where he is investigating disappearances of brides near a particular mountain, thought to be done by a ghost groom. Accompanying him is a Ghost King (who, like is the natural enemy of the heavens), Hua Cheng with a fearsome reputation, but to Xie Lian he is the gentlest and most devoted yes, it is a romance between the two of them. Heaven Official’s Blessing basic plotline is about a prince-turned-martial god, Xie Lian, who has ascended to the heavens for the third time (it has also been 800 years since his first ascension), and as he starts to get involved in the matters of the heavens thanks to some mysteries he is investigating, there is a whole hidden tapestry of issues that start to unravel. I was also in a reading slump at the time, so reading something different for a change really perked me up. Anyway, so I started, paused and then came back to it when the date for the donghua was announced, and then once I started again I practically read it in a frenzy. When I first started this novel, I will admit I was intimidated by its size – with 200+ chapters spanning across 5 books, the complete story is quite a lot, obviously, to undertake it is like reading an omnibus at length. Warnings: body horror, graphic violence and gore, cannibalism, character commits suicide, character attempts suicide, epidemic and mass death, death of children, self-harm, implied child abuse, war and mass murder On his first task as a god, he meets a mysterious demon who rules the ghosts and terrifies the Heavens……yet unbeknownst to Xie Lian, this demon king has been paying attention to him for a very, very long time. Now, eight hundred years later, Xie Lian ascends to the Heavens for the third time as the laughing stock of all three realms.

Unsurprisingly, he ascended to the Heavens at a very young age.

天官赐福 by Mò Xiāng TóngxiùĮight hundred years ago, Xie Lian was the Crown Prince of the Xian Le kingdom one who was beloved by his citizens and the darling of the world.

Heaven Official's Blessing by Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù