Crown Prince and Ghost King

Disclaimers, Notes, and Timeline

Disclaimer

Parts of this are taken straight from the novel, as this is actually meant to be a retelling of sort. I can only wish to be as talented as MXTX when it comes to writing, she's incredible.

All the parts I've taken from the novel, either straight from it or adapted, belong to the author.

I feel obliged to tell you that I took the majority of the translated names (like the ghost ranks) from the heaven official's blessing wikia, as they're closer to the translations I've read (one in Italian, one in English).

Also, English is not my native language, and I unfortunately don't have a beta that proofreads my stuff. Please, forgive mistakes and/or typing errors, if you find some.

This is my first ever fic on MXTX works. I've never been confident enough to tackle this (I've been wanting to write something since when I read MDZS), but I love TGCF way too much, and Hualian is the death of me. I haven't even read fics about them yet, this is me rushing to action and probably being awful at it.
Also, I'm aware that this is probably a canon divergence already explored by the fandom (although I'm not sure? again, never read anything yet), as I'm quite late to it. I still wanted to give it a try, because it's the first thing that came to mind when I thought about writing a fic.

Notes (beware, spoilers)

I don't use they/them for the Wind Master. Like MXTX, I use he when he's a man, and she when she's a woman. Still, use the correct pronouns when addressing real people, okay?

Xie Lian is not so oblivious in this. It makes sense for him not to know stuff in the original novel, but he spent quite a bit of time with Hua Cheng in this fic. He's as knowledgeable as he could be while being married to someone who knows basically everything.

Xie Lian and Hua Cheng got reunited after the whole ordeal with the Gilded banquet (Xie Lian getting nailed in the heart included), and got married not long after. This means Xie Lian was already married to Hua Cheng when the BanYue War happened, but didn't intervene because Xie Lian asked him not to. This has no meaning to the story, but I wanted to specify it just in case.

Jun Wu doesn't really appear in this, but just to be clear, he and White No-Face are completely different people in this divergence.
Also, White Clothed Calamity was killed by Xie Lian himself, because he deserve that victory against him.

Shi Wudu was killed by He Xuan some time before Xie Lian's ascension, and the Heavenly Capital condemned him for his actions.
However, Shi QingXuan is still a heavenly official, and goes along pretty well with He Xuan (you can see their relationship however you want).

He Xuan is still posing as the Earth Master because of his relationship with Shi QingXuan.

Canon Divergence Timeline (from 600 years after Xie Lian's second banishment)

Heads up: nothing in this timeline is precise, everything is more or less approximated. This because I'm dealing with people that are centuries old, and it doesn't make sense for me to have precise numbers. The novel itself doesn't care TOO MUCH about precise years, save for some cases (which are always important information for the plot, I've noticed), so I'm not trying to wrap my head around 800 years of stuff.

Hua Cheng and Xie Lian meet not too long after Xie Lian escapes the coffin (in which Xie Lian spent around 100 years, probably less to give the Hualian plot more off-screen time), just some months later.
It takes them a relatively short time to become a couple from their first meeting, two years at MOST.

Xie Lian moves to Ghost City and learns about the Heavenly Court through books and stories. Early on he also meets Shi QingXuan, and Ming Yi a short time later.

Around a decade later, Xie Lian finds himself in the BanYue War. He lingers in BanYue for a short time, opposite to the novel, and gets rescued by Hua Cheng when he ends up in the river as a "corpse".

Shi Wudu's third Heavenly Trial happens some years after the BanYue War, when Xie Lian had mostly recovered, so this is when the Black Water Island arc takes place. At most 10 years, but probaby not that many.
After Shi Wudu's death, Shi QingXuan stays in seclusion for a couple years, enough time to come to terms with what happened and realize he's still worthy of godhood, and then goes back to the Heavenly Court. His friendship with He Xuan takes some months in order to be mended. Remember, two years are probably just a breeze for immortal heavenly officials, so it seems a relatively short time to be away.

After that nothing worthy of note happens, as there's no events from the novel I've moved in the past. When Xie Lian ascends again, at least here, while it's more or less 800 years since his birth his age is actually approximate and basically no one knows anymore how old he or many other characters are. Not even Hua Cheng knows for sure

My guess is that immortal heavenly officials just lose count at some point, and keep track by rounding the numbers.
Admittedly, my basis for writing immortal people if elves from the Tolkien legendarium, so thanks to that I play around the fact that heavenly officials are old enough and have experienced enough immortality to view the passage of time in a different way compared to mortals. Same goes with ghosts that are just as old. I know it's two completely different types of fantasy, but I really like this idea for immortals in general so I adopted it for TGCF as well.