It’s not that The crown prince didn’t try, but it would have been better if he hadn’t. The harder he tried, the more disastrous the battle became. The people of Xianle were beaten bloody, suffering heavy casualties. In the end, a plague swept through the entire imperial city, the rebels stormed the palace, and the chaos of war came to an end.

If Xianle had been barely hanging on before, then The crown prince finished it off completely.

·

After the fall of the nation, people suddenly realized something:

The The crown prince they had worshipped as a god was not nearly as perfect and powerful as they had imagined.

To put it bluntly, wasn’t he just a useless failure who ruined more than he accomplished?!

With nowhere to vent the pain of losing their homes and loved ones, the wounded and angry people surged into the The crown prince, toppled the statues, and burned the temple to the ground.

Eight thousand palaces and shrines burned for seven days and nights, until nothing was left.

From then on, a martial god who once protected peace disappeared, and a god of plague who brought disaster was born.

If people say you’re a god, you’re a god; if they say you’re shit, you’re shit. Whatever they say you are, that’s what you have to be. That’s just how it is.

·

The crown prince simply could not accept this reality. What he found even harder to accept was the punishment he had to face: banishment.

His powers were sealed, and he was cast down to the mortal world.

He had grown up pampered and adored, never having suffered any hardship. This punishment sent him crashing from the clouds into the mud. In that filthy mire, he tasted hunger, poverty, and filth for the first time. It was also the first time he did things he’d never imagined himself doing: stealing, robbing, cursing, giving up on himself. He lost all dignity and self-respect, looking as wretched as could be. Even his most loyal attendants couldn’t accept his transformation and chose to leave.

The phrase “Though the body is in hell, the heart is in paradise” was once inscribed everywhere on Xianle’s steles and plaques. If not for the fact that almost all of them were burned in the war, if The crown prince saw them again, he’d probably be the first to smash them.

The person who said those words had already proven with his own experience that, when he himself was in hell, his heart could not remain in paradise.

·

He ascended to the heavens quickly, but fell to earth even faster. His martial prowess had once dazzled the world, and in a single thought he could meet demons or immortals on the Bridge of Destiny. It all seemed like it was just yesterday. But after a brief sigh from the heavens, the past was simply left behind.

Many years later, one day, a thunderous boom shook the sky. This The crown prince ascended for a second time.

Throughout history, banished gods either never recovered or fell into the ghost realm; almost none ever managed to rise again after being cast down. A second ascension was truly unprecedented and earth-shattering.

Even more earth-shattering was what happened next: after ascending, he charged into the heavens, fists and feet flying, wreaking havoc everywhere. As a result, he was knocked back down after just the time it takes to burn one stick of incense.

One stick of incense. It could be called the fastest and shortest ascension in history.

If the first ascension was a beautiful tale, the second was nothing but a farce.

·

After two such incidents, the heavens were filled with nothing but disdain for this The crown prince. Along with the disdain, there was also a bit of wariness. After all, he’d nearly lost his mind after being banished once; if it happened twice, wouldn’t he be consumed by inner demons and seek revenge on the world?

But to everyone’s surprise, after this second banishment, he didn’t go mad. Instead, he adapted quite earnestly to his new life. There were no problems at all—except that he was perhaps a little too earnest.

Sometimes, he performed on the streets, skilled in singing, dancing, and playing every instrument, even breaking stones on his chest. People had long heard that this The crown prince was talented in the arts, but to witness it in this way was truly a complicated feeling. Other times, he diligently collected junk.

The gods and immortals of all the heavens were stunned.

Things had come to such a pass, it was simply unbelievable. Nowadays, if you curse someone by saying, “May your son be the Xianle The crown prince,” it’s even more vicious than wishing their family line would end.

After all, he was once a noble The crown prince, a god among the immortals, and to fall to this point—there was no one else like him. This is what it means to be the laughingstock of the three realms.

After the laughter, those with a bit of sentimentality might sigh: that once lofty favored child of the heavens had truly vanished for good.

The statues had fallen, the old kingdom was gone, not a single believer remained, and he was gradually forgotten by the world. So, no one knew where he wandered off to.

To be banished once was already a humiliation beyond compare. To be banished twice—no one could ever get back up again.

·

Many more years passed. Then, one day, there was another thunderous boom in the sky.

Heaven and earth shook, mountains trembled.

The eternal lamps quivered, flames danced wildly, and all the gods were startled awake in their golden halls, rushing about and asking: Who is this new immortal ascending? What a spectacle!

But just as they were marveling at the commotion, they looked up and saw that all the gods and buddhas in the sky had been struck by lightning.

Enough already!

That infamous oddball, the laughingstock of the three realms, the legendary The crown prince—he, he, he—damn it, he ascended again!

Author’s note: Dear readers on Jinjiang, thank you for waiting!