It wasn’t that the crown prince didn’t work hard, but it would’ve been better had he not tried at all. The harder he worked, the more of a mess the war became; the people of Xianle were devastatingly battered and crushed, the number of wounded and casualties severe, and in the end, a plague swept through the entire imperial city, the rebel army broke through to the palace, and so ended the war.

If it was said Xianle was originally hanging by a thread, then the crown prince came and cut it directly.

-

After the kingdom had fallen, the people finally came to realize one thing: the crown  prince  they worshipped as a god was never as perfect or strong as they imagined.

More harshly, wasn’t he just some useless trash who couldn’t do anything right?!

Without anywhere to vent the anguish and pain of losing homes  and  families,  the  battered  people furiously poured into the Palaces of the Crown Prince, toppled his divine statues, and burned down the divine temples.

Eight thousand temples burned for seven days and seven nights, and burned until there was nothing left. From that moment on, the martial god who guarded peace and safety vanished, and a God of Misfortune who brought disasters was born.

When the people call you a god, then you are a god. If they call you crap, then  you’re  crap.  You  are whatever they said you were. It has always been thus.

-

The crown prince couldn’t accept this reality no matter what, and what he couldn’t accept even more was the punishment he was sentenced: Banishment.

His spiritual powers were sealed, and his person knocked back down to the mortal realm.

He grew up endlessly coddled and pampered, he had never tasted the  suffering  of  the  human  world before, yet this punishment threw him from the clouds down into mud. And in this mud, for the first time, he understood the taste of hunger, poverty, and filth. This was also the first time that he did things he never thought he’d do willingly: stealing, robbing, loudly cursing, and giving up on himself. He’d lost all dignity, there was no self-esteem left, and he was as unkempt as one could be. Even his most loyal servant couldn’t accept this change in him and chose to leave.

“Body in abyss, heart in paradise”. This phrase was engraved on  stone  monuments  and  plaques everywhere in Xianle. If it wasn’t for the war that burned almost all of the kingdom to the ground, if the crown prince were to see the remnants of those words, he’d probably be the first to rush up to destroy what remained.

The person who had said those words had personally proven that, when the body was in the abyss, the heart couldn’t be in paradise.

-

He ascended to the heavens quickly, but he fell from grace even faster. That awe-inspiring glance upon the Great Martial Avenue, having met evil at Yinian Bridge; it was as if it was only yesterday. However, after the heavenly realm whispered for a while, what was past was past.

Until after many years, one day, a huge rumble thundered from the sky. This royal highness ascended for the second time.

Throughout history, heavenly officials who were banished either never regained themselves, or fell into the ghost realm. There had never been many who were able to turn  a  new  leaf  after  having  been banished. The second ascension was fully grand and spectacular.

What was even more spectacular was that, after he ascended, he charged all the way into the heavenly realm and rampaged in full fury. Thus, he had only been ascended for the spanse of one incense time before he was knocked back down again.

One incense time. This could be considered the swiftest and the shortest ascension in history.

If the first ascension could be considered a beautiful tale, then the second ascension was a farce.

-

Having been banished twice, the heavenly realm looked upon this crown prince with full contempt. And in this contempt, there was also caution. After all, he was already threatening and on edge after the first banishment; now that he was banished twice, wasn’t he going to go berserk and avenge himself against the world?

Yet who knew, after getting banished this time, he didn’t go berserk, and was even  adjusting  to  the banished life honestly. There were no issues at all, the only problem was…maybe he was taking things a little too seriously?

Sometimes he’d busk at the end of the street, expertly playing any instrument and singing any songs, and even shattering boulders on his chest was not beyond him. While there had long been word that this royal highness could sing and dance and was a master of many talents, unbelievably, all of his talents were being witnessed in such a fashion, truly making one feel complicated. Sometimes, he would diligently and humbly collect junk.

All the deities were shocked to the core.

Unthinkable, that things would reach this point; the point where now, if anyone was to say “the son you gave birth to is the Crown Prince of Xianle”, it’d be a curse more malicious than “may you die without sons”.

He was once the noble and gracious crown prince, a heavenly official who made part of the divine ranks. But to have screwed up to this point, there really was no one else. And so, this was the story of the man who was known as the laughingstock of the three realms.

After laughing, those who were more sentimental might also sigh. That darling of the heavens, who once stood at such a height, had truly and thoroughly disappeared.

Divine statues collapsed, native kingdom destroyed, not a single believer remained. Gradually, he was forgotten by the world. Thus, no one knew where he drifted afterwards.

-

Another many years passed. Suddenly one day, there was another huge rumble in the sky. The heaven fell and the earth cracked, the ground trembled and the mountains shook.

The lanterns of everlasting light shuddered, the firelights danced in fury, and all the heavenly officials jolted awake inside their own golden palaces, every one of them running out to ask each other:

Which new dignitary ascended? Such a grandiose entrance!

Yet who knew—they’d only exclaimed in wonder the first second, when in the next second, all the gods and buddhas of heaven were thunderstruck.

Weren’t you done?!