Proud, brooding bottom × devoted, calculating top | Coercive Love | A Thousand Prayers for One Person | Six Reflections in the Mirror | All Beings Defy Heaven's Will
He is the creation spirit of the Heavenly Dao, the keeper of order in the Three Realms.
He is the source of the Yin Ruins, the Heavenly Dao's sole loophole, and a vessel for all the world's shattered regrets in love.
The Heavenly Dao fears that Su Heng is not bound by the Book of Fate and wants him erased. Xie Linyuan cannot destroy the Six Pacts of Extinguished Love directly. So he hijacks the Heavenly Dao's original hunting-love illusion, the Calamity Mirror Ruins, and splits off six strands of his own divided soul, dying in Su Heng's place in each lifetime.
"I'll trade six lifetimes for one. I'll wait for you on the final page."
Six tragic endings. In each lifetime, a divided soul of Xie Linyuan dies, while Su Heng lives on alone in each mirror-reflection, waiting and forgetting.
When all six mirrors have been traversed, his memories are unlocked.
Kneeling amid the ruins of the Old Tales Archive, he finally sees the person he had pushed away for ten thousand years with orders and indifference.
"I wasn't waiting for you on the final page. I've been waiting for you since the first."
[The Heavenly Dao's rules: Family bonds cannot be whole, friendships cannot last, lovers cannot stay together, and all beings are destined for regret.]
Theme: The old Heavenly Dao used "all bonds must shatter" as its governing law, sustaining order through the regrets of all beings. Xie Linyuan and Su Heng kindled a spark, gathering once more the voices of the Three Realms, whose hearts had been crushed millions of times. The ones who truly break the chains are the countless mortals, demons, spirits, souls of the dead, and rogue immortals who refuse to yield and yearn for a happy ending. Love and loyalty are not destined to shatter. All beings deserve to be caught when they fall.
