Tushan Jing and Xiao Yao, here's to a Happily Ever After

@AH

Hi

I am just glad you pay a visit again. As long as not insulting to YaoJing.. different opinions can be discussed. 

But i have one question about this..

From what I saw.. XL created the blood jewel from XY blood..and it is quite quick in creating..

Or are you meaning that blue shell..if so can you provide more info on it as I think i have missed it..

Thank u

"Zhuan Xu held her hand: "I'm fine. Fenglong helped me block the first arrow. The second arrow hit a secret guard. The blood on my body is Fenglong's.""

If the arrow was meant for FLg  ,  ZX would not be saying this.  " helped me block.....

Fenglong used his own body "to block" the 1rst arrow.

The arrow was meant for ZX. 

ZX’s story may be sad but I’ll NEVER feel sorry for him nor will I EVER feel sorry for xl too. Both have used her on many occasions & even one physically abused her but people will still defend him cos he saved her. Even in the plum assassination arc, if Jing hadn’t used his powers to keep her body from burning,will ZX or XL have a body to save? They’d have met her ashes,he took in the burn while he preserved her body. 

I’ve kept quiet but in s2 I don’t want to hear any nonsense about Jing, you are always welcome to state your opinion but don’t insult the characters to uplift your fav. I may be bias when it comes to Jing but I’ll never insult other characters, but rather give constructive criticism/feedback. 

 soTreeD:

Did Xiangliu keep Xiaoyao for 37 years which was actually longer than he needed to, just to make sure Tushan Jing would be near death and he could wrangle the best deal for his army from Cangxuan?
Xiangliu had apologized to Xiaoyao and asked if she would blame him if Tushan Jing died. He could also 'wake her on demand', which was why I thought he had the option to return her to her family sooner than he did. That was time he robbed from Xiaoyao, even though she was a deity with thousands of years of lifespan but in doing so, he also robbed time from Tushan Jing, who was cornered into his decision because he had no more time left since his grandmother was also out of time.

IMO, TSJ being near death did not benefit XL and CX likely would have made that deal if XL told him that was the condition for returning XY alive to him after 37 days, let alone 37 years. Given how desperate CX was to see XY alive again, I don't think intentionally extending the time would make any difference. Plus it wasn't all that great a deal. CX was only required to fulfill his end of the bargain if / when he became emperor. The odds were against him even being named crown prince and even if he succeeded in gaining that title, most would have expected that he would not gain the throne for many, many years. The Yellow Emperor abdicating his throne and handing it to CX so early surprised everyone, including CX. It was completely unprecedented and unpredictable. 

This perhaps is not everyone's interpretation, but to me XL seemed to have a habit of entering deals that acted as covers / excuses to hide his true motives. In chapter 7, he asked WXL for a promise in exchange for agreeing to accept the bug transfer to hide the fact that he wanted the bug transfer to happen even if he got no other benefit. In chapter 22, he made that deal with CX to hide the fact that he saved XY because he wanted to and would have done so even if he got no other benefit (as he did in chapter 48). In chapter 32, he made a deal with TSJ to hide the fact that he took XY away from her wedding with Feng Long because he wanted to and would have done so even if he got no other benefit. In chapter 43, he told XY that she would have to pay a price for him helping her to find Miao Pu (even though it was something that he clearly wanted to do) and then made the "price" her promising to live. 

Also, the method that Xiang Liu used to finally fully revive XY in chapter 23 was different and much more painful (so unbearably painful that it caused her to cry out in pain and then to pass out) than the healing method he steadily used for the first 37 years of her healing. It seemed like a very drastic measure that he was reluctant to take, but ultimately did decide to take to ensure that XY could get back to TSJ in time to save his life. And even that method might not have been possible if her body wasn't already close to being ready to wake up at that point thanks to the first 37 years of healing. 

Plus, if XL had not told XY that TSJ was close to death she told Xing Yue that she would have gone to CX first instead of going to TSJ first. And XL instructed Furball to hurry her and to fly her as close as he could to the residence where TSJ was. 

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Chapter 22:

Who knows how many more years passed and Xiao Yao gradually felt her own legs. She tried to wiggle her toes and it wasn’t clear if it moved. She couldn’t ask Xiang Liu to check for her. But regardless of whether it moved or not, she felt that her body was close to awakening.

One day Xiang Liu came back but instead of his usual touching her forehead and cheeks, he instead quietly stared at her. Xiao Yao couldn’t figure out what he was thinking, but she knew he was deciding something.

Xiang Liu picked up Xiao Yao. “Tonight is a full moon. I’ll take you out to play!”

Xiao Yao was confused, wasn’t the night of the full moon a night for healing?

Xiang Liu took her all over to stroll around, sometimes leisurely swimming in the ocean, other times heading up to the surface to rise and fall with the waves.

Tonight was different than usual in that he talked a lot. Every time they got to a place he would start talking.

...

Xiang Liu took Xiao Yao out for a long time and they didn’t return until late into the night.

“Xiao Yao, do you remember Tu Shan Jing? Wen Xiao Liu’s Ye Shi Qi? Since you’ve been sleeping, he’s also been unconscious. His life has been maintained by spiritual medicines until now but it’s almost at the limit. He’s at the brink of death.”

Jing, Jing……Xiao Yao didn’t feel sad when she died, life has its beginning so it must have an end. It didn’t start happy and need not end sad. But right now she was very sad, she didn’t want Jing to die.

Xiao Yao tried to move.

Xiang Liu asked, “If he died, would you be really sad and hate me to the core?”

Xiao Yao answered in her heart: I don’t want Jing to die, but I also won’t hate you.

Xiang Liu said, “Tonight I’m waking you up.”

Xiang Liu fed his essential soul blood to Xiao Yao, and different than before where it felt like warm flames that chased away the coldness of death in Xiao Yao’s body, tonight his essential soul blood was a raging inferno that scorched Xiao Yao. It was colliding in her body and appeared to rip her insides to shreds before slowly bonding it back together.

Xiao Yao couldn’t cry out but her body violently shook. Gradually her hands could move, her legs could move, and then she painfully cried out as all the soul essence entered her body and she passed out in the midst of unbearable pain.

When Xiao Yao woke up, she felt the warm sun on her body and she subconsciously turned over to keep on sleeping. Suddenly she opened her eyes in disbelief. She laid there in a daze and then slowly raised her hand up.

Oh! She really could move!

...

A white and gold condor descended but without Xiang Liu on his back.

Xiao Yao stroked its back, “Furball, where is your master?”

Furbal flapped his wings and called towards the sky once, as if urging Xiao Yao to get on his back.

Xiao Yao happily asked, “Xiang Liu asked you to bring me to see him?

Furball shook his head.

Xiao Yao quizzically asked, “Xiang Liu asked you to take me home?”

Furball nodded his head.

Whether Xiang Liu had matters to attend to or he was purposely avoiding seeing her, Xiao Yao stood there in a dumbstruck daze, the initial happiness of regaining life and light disappearing like receding waves.

Furball pecked Xiao Yao’s hand to urge her to hurry up.

Xiao Yao climbed on Furball’s back and it rose into the air and flew towards the Middle Plains.

Xiao Yao stared at the passing ocean surface as it rushed past her like a shooting arrow, disappearing behind her. The feelings in her heart were so jumbled.

The next morning, Furball landed outside Zhi Yi Castle and Xiao Yao knew many people would recognize Xiang Liu’s winged ride and knew Furball could only take her as far as here.

...

Xiao Yao entered Zhi Yi Castle and saw it bustling with people on the street even more than before and felt relieved. She called for a carriage and hearing people speak made it feel warm and personable.

The carriage arrived at Little Zhu Rong’s residence and Xiao Yao got off. 

...

Xiao Yao said, “I ought to go to Sheng Nong Mountain to see Gege first but I heard Jing is very sick. I want to go to Qing Qiu to see him, can you come with me?”

Xing Yue pulled her inside. “You came to the right place. Jing gege is not at Qing Qiu, he’s here.”

Xiao Yao said, “Take me to see him now.”

 soTreeD:

Xiangliu saving Xiaoyao from her loveless marriage at her wedding. I have even seen people throw the blame to Tushan Jing because Xiangliu was just a 'hired gun' in this matter. However, the difference was Tushan Jing went to Fenglong first, and he specifically asked Xiangliu to minimize the harm Xiaoyao could get over agreeing to stop her wedding.
You could say, Xiangliu did it for Xiaoyao's own sake. If he did it sooner, Xiaoyao may still be forced by Cangxuan to change her mind again, and she could still end up marrying Fenglong. However that would be conjecture, who is to say Xiaoyao after getting a wake-up call to be free from that engagement, wouldn't decide on another path for herself?
Xiangliu weighed everything but chose the worst possible way for Xiaoyao, for the chance to make the Chishui clan fall out with Cangxuan, weakening his rule.

My interpretation was that XL used the method that would ensure that XY would never be pressured by anyone else, or even herself (as she was given every opportunity to call off the wedding with Feng Long, but still decided to go through with it), to marry someone who she didn't love and who didn't love her (and specifically would only marry if it was someone like TSJ who would love her enough to not care at all about her ruined reputation) while also thoroughly concealing his true feelings and motives from her and pushing her away from himself and towards TSJ (after re-confirming that she was still willing to marry YSQ). That dynamic seemed especially clear on XY's last day in QS town, when XL's drastic push led XY to go and visit TSJ. A visit that marked the beginning of the process of XY and TSJ starting to reconcile for the first time after the FFYY pregnancy / marriage broke them apart. 

And, IMO, the wedding interruption never risked creating the kind of falling out between Chishui and CX that could have weakened CX's rule. CX was already married to Xing Yue, making Feng Long not only CX's right-hand man but also his brother-in-law. Even when Feng Long was still uncomfortable around XY afterwards, he continued to serve and support CX as he had before and CX continued to favour him (e.g., by selecting Feng Long to be one of his generals in the war against Gao Xing). Plus Gao Xing bore the blame for XY running out on the wedding, not CX, and ironically it was Gao Xing that compensated Chuisui for it before the war. 

 soTreeD:

Lastly , did Xiangliu really 'keep Jing safe from Cangxuan' for 6-7 years or he had ulterior motives as Xiaoyao pointed out? All he extracted was a promise for Xiaoyao not to kill herself again to avoid a 'romeo-juliet' situation, so we can tell he probably intended to reunite the two lovebirds eventually.
However Xiangliu was fully aware of how much suffering Xiaoyao went through, her extreme grief over losing Jing. While Cangxuan was under the delusion that Xiaoyao could get over Jing, Xiangliu knew better because he had direct access to how she felt.
I think Xiaoyao would have been fully capable of healing Jing without Xiangliu needing to drain almost half of her blood, and Jing could have taken subsequent steps to protect himself since its not like he didn't know what was going on. Once again, Xiangliu robbed time from yaojing.

To ensure that XY and TSJ would both be safe and able to have their happy ending after TSJ was revived, while also shielding XY from the impact of XL's death to the extent that he could, XL needed to do more than just revive TSJ or return his body to XY in the hopes that she could revive him herself. 

XL needed to get XY to realize for herself what CX had done. Consistent with his kind and forgiving nature, as soon as TSJ returned, he encouraged XY to forgive CX for what he had done to TSJ. If XY never even realized what CX had done before TSJ (or his unconscious body) was returned to her, would TSJ have told her what CX had done? And if he did tell her but was already back and clearly alive, would XY still have been able to leave CX at the end of the novel - a step that was necessary for her to successfully break free from her identity (the way her mother never could) so she could enjoy freedom and a lifetime of worry-free happiness with TSJ? 

XL also needed to make sure that XY had no awareness of his involvement in saving TSJ and he needed to push her to break ties with him so that she would be somewhat shielded from the impact of his imminent death. It would be much more difficult, perhaps even impossible, for XL to secretly deliver TSJ's unconscious body directly to XY (in the hopes that she would be able to revive him) without revealing his involvement. And what would XL do next if XY wasn't able to heal and revive TSJ?  

XL also couldn't risk having XY and TSJ disappear before he had an opportunity to break the bug connection between himself and XY so that his death would not result in XY's death. 

And, in the long run, the seven year separation benefitted XY and TSJ. It allowed enough time to pass for the Tushan Clan's leadership question to be resolved, for the clan (including TSZ) to adjust to a new normal where TSJ was no longer present and clan leader, and for that MO to be proven to be stable. That meant that when TSJ finally did return, he could confirm that the clan and TSZ had been doing well for years and (in somewhat good conscience, although leaving TSZ without a proper parental figure is truly not ideal) choose to leave them behind to be with XY basically as YSQ (as he had promised all those years ago). 

 soTreeD:

But Xiangliu wanted the Central plains to destabilize, since the biggest and richest Tushan clan could fall into disarray because their Chief disappeared.

The Tushan clan falling into disarray and the Middle Plains being destabalized wouldn't have given XL or the Shengnong remnant army much benefit. And it might have actually been detrimental to them. The 37 years of provisions that TSJ agreed to give to the Shengnong remnant army in chapter 31 would have run out even before TSJ disappeared. After Gao Xing became part of Xuan Yuan, they no longer provided the Shengnong remnant army with support or supplies. The only potential source of additional supplies would have been their longstanding arrangement with the Tushan clan to continue secretly doing business with them. 

Plus the Tushan clan was not significantly destabliized by TSJ's disappearance. Predictably, XY asked CX to make sure that TSZ and the Tushan clan were protected and stable, and he complied with her request. 

 soTreeD:

He also counted on Xiaoyao to investigate on who could be responsible for Jing's death, and hoped she would become his knife to cut down the other chiefs of the big clans, including Cangxuan himself. He did not consider Xiaoyao's own safety in this. He was ready to send her to die when he sent her against Cangxuan since his guards were ready to kill her if not for Cangxuan stopping them.

XL told XY that it would not be hard for her to realize the truth about who was responsible for killing TSJ once she carefully analyzed it, and gave her other hints. He would've been aware that with that framing of it, she wasn't going to go around wildly trying to get revenge against a bunch of clan leaders that didn't have the necessary power to kill TSJ or a clear motive to want TSJ dead. And she didn't. Plus, because of his harsh behaviour in pushing her to cut ties with him, XY was naturally suspicious of XL's motives and whether his hints were true or a ruse to use her. So she would be even less likely to rashly go after a random clan leader based on conjecture. If XL had wanted XY to do so, he would have needed to approach XY and present the information in a different way so she would trust the information enough to act rashly on it. 

Based on the information that XY gave her, XY considered and quickly eliminated many names. After six months, she was repeatedly only stuck on one name: XL's. No one else's. Until finally Left Ear helped her see past her own blindspot. And the only reason XY couldn't figure out the truth after six whole months was that she couldn't even fathom the possibilty that CX might do something that would hurt her so badly. TSJ foreshadowed that in chapter 35.

-----

Chapter 35:

Zhuan Xu was leaving when Jing asked “Your majesty, why did you do that?”

Zhuan Xu slowly turned back around. The crowds were rushing past below the steps but on the steps, either the guards were keeping a barrier or there simply was no one else headed that way, it was oddly silent with only Jing and Zhuan Xu staring at each other under the lamp light.

Zhuan Xu had a mocking smile on the corner of his lips, “How did you find out?”

Jing said, “I initially thought it was the Empress since she wants to hurt Xiao Yao and has the power to spread the rumors. I thought Your majesty would be working to staunch the rumors but as much as I tried, even using the power of the three clans of Xi Ling, Gui Fang, and Tu Shan, it could not stop the rumors. I realized it didn’t appear to be the Empress since the power behind the rumors was too great. Tonight it appears Xiao Yao made all the choices, but if Your majesty wanted Xiao Yao to be undisturbed, then General Li Yuan and his group would not have been able to enter the restaurant. The only explanation is that Your majesty wanted Xiao Yao to accidentally meet General Li Yuan’s group.”

Zhuan Xu calmly said, “Feng Long told me once that you are smarter than anyone he knows. I didn’t really believe him then but today it appears you deserve Feng Long’s praise.”

Jing said, “Your majesty, it’s not Xiao Yao being not smart enough to figure it out, it’s that she will never ever believe that you would hurt her.”

Zhuan Xu’s smile vanished and he coldly said, “I did it because I want to protect her.”

Jing already knew Zhuan Xu’s intentions but to have it confirmed still shook him to the core.

-----

And XY didn't take any action agaisnt CX until after he personally confirmed that he was responsible for TSJ's death. 

Also, I don't think XL expected XY to have the heart to kill CX after she figured out what he did (and, ultimately, she did not). And he definitely didn't send her to die. If she had died, he would have died. 

Plus, if he was willing to let XY die at that point, why would he go through so much effort to save her life in chapter 48? Why would he go through so much effort, including sacrificing one of his lives and stabbing himself in the heart, in order to break the bug connection between them so that when he died on the battlefield she wouldn't die at the same time? Why did he go to the effort of bringing TSJ back for her? Why did he keep her ice crystal ball, add a message to it wishing her a life-time of happiness, and secretly return it to her as a wedding present before he died? Given all the things he secretly did for her and TSJ, the idea that he would be reckless with XY's life just for the sake of making minor, temporary gains for the Shengnong remnant army doesn't make sense to me. 

 soTreeD:

Xiangliu and Tushan Jing are both very intelligent people but they stand on the far opposite ends of how they treat others.

I agree with this. 

 soTreeD:

Xiangliu will always make his decisions calculated for maximum damage and benefit for his own people

I sort of agree with this, but I would count XY as one of his people. 

 soTreeD:

Jing will always try to minimize the damage caused to others not related to him, even after some of these people have hurt him repeatedly.

I generally agree with this. 

Although there were times when I really felt for XY and the sentiment that was expressed in chapter 33. Sometimes when he focused on minimizing damage to a person like FFYY, XY ended up getting hurt instead. But my hope / sense is that, by the end of the novel, he was more aware and a bit better about managing those types of situations. 

-----

Chapter 33:

Xiao Yao said, “Fang Feng Yi Yang is underhanded but you also gave her the chance. In the beginning I said it was fine and I didn’t care, but I hated you and resented you deep down. So at each occasion, I would either avoid you or act like I was fine. I never let you see that I was still affected by you, but I always took note of your reactions.”

Jing said, “I know, I was wrong.” 

Back then, he kept feeling that Fangfeng Yi Ying was innocent, and it was both he and the Tu Shan clan who wronged her, so he did not wish to hurt her, but he neglected to consider that by not hurting Fang Feng Yi Ying, Xiao Yao would be the one who was hurt instead.

Xiao Yao said, “You were wrong but it wasn’t only your fault. All these years I’ve been diligently learning medicine and my attitude has changed a lot and the way I see things. I discovered that it wasn’t right for me to blame it all on you.”

 soTreeD:

Jing will also never, ever knowingly hurt Xiaoyao with what his every action, but Xiangliu can accept hurting her as long as the ends justified the means and she was still alive at the end.

I sort of agree with this as well, especially for physical pain and with the "knowingly" qualifier for TSJ, but I would add that TSJ is willing to give XY expectations even if there's a good chance that those expectations will lead to heartbreak and pain for her, while XL goes to a lot of effort to prevent and dismantle any expectations XY might have that could lead to heartbreak or pain in the future. 

IMO, the approaches are extreme opposites with neither one being optimal. One is overly optimistic (and perhaps niave) and often results in painful disappointment in the future. The other is overly pessimistic and often results in painful disappointment in the present. 

But once several variables were taken care of to enable it, the optimistic approach (with some hard-earned caution added in) was the only approach that could result in a happy ending. 

 soTreeD:

With a Jing like that, I don't dare to use the word 'selfless',

I don't follow?

 soTreeD:

so can you truly claim Xiangliu is 'selfless'?

I personally do view him as selfless, although he can also be very harsh. IMO, sometimes his harshness is something that he only implements to hide his most selfless acts or even constitutes a selfless act (like when he is harsh to XY in order to push her away from him and towards TSJ). But not always. Sometimes he's just harsh, full stop. 

 AH :

If you are on desktop, you can try highlighting the text of the long comment that you want to quote (don't use the button at the bottom). Wait until a different "quote" button pops up near the top of the text that you've highlighted and click that. 

Oh thanks for the tip! I shall try it out in future!

 soTreeD:

Oh thanks for the tip! I shall try it out in future!

Hope it works!

 Winny24:

@AH

Hi

Hi Winny24!

 Winny24:

I am just glad you pay a visit again.

Aw, thank you!

 Winny24:

But i have one question about this..

 AH :

Note that we are shown evidence that XL had been planning to revive TSJ (and to obtain XY's blood in order to do so) for a long time. After TSJ fell unconscious and disappeared in the ocean, he was gone for seven years (six and a half years at the time that XL created the blood jewel) and his body was kept safe during all of that time. And on the same night that XL collected XY's blood and turned it into the jewel that would be used to revive TSJ, the merman summoned by XL appeared with a custom-made shell that had been created by the Jin Tian family specifically to keep that jewel in. 

 Winny24:

From what I saw.. XL created the blood jewel from XY blood..and it is quite quick in creating..

Yes, XL transformed the urn with XY's blood into the blood jewel relatively quickly on the same night that XY cut ties with him. 

 Winny24:

Or are you meaning that blue shell..if so can you provide more info on it as I think i have missed it..

Sure. In my view, there are two things that make me think that XL had been planning to create the blood jewel to revive TSJ for a long time before the night when he actually created the blood jewel. 

First, the blue shell that the merman brought to keep the blood jewel safe was custom-made by a Middle Plains family (the Jintian family of master forgers that traced their lineage back to the beginning of civilization, along with the Tushan family - they also forged XY's bow and it took them 35 years to do so) specifically for the purpose of housing the blood jewel. 

 AH :

Xiang Liu didn’t move or say a word, only staring at the urn with the same plastered smile on his face. He could see clearly the glistening blood inside, beautiful in its power. He stretched his palms forward and conjured up power, a blue green light glowed around him like stars and the urn gradually got smaller and smaller until it became a blood red jewel the size of a pigeon’s egg. Xiang Liu held it in his hand, and turning the blood into a jewel appeared to have sapped Xiang Liu of his power and his face was pale and his hands shook. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips, and after some time he was able to make a call that only the water tribes could hear.

After some time, a ripple appeared on the water’s surface and a merman rode the waves up to Xiang Liu. He stopped before Xiang Liu and bowed respectfully.

Xiang Liu handed the red blood jewel to the merman who carefully received it and placed it into a blue shell that was custom made by the Jin Tian family for this jewel. Xiang Liu spoke to the merman in the mer language, and the merman listened to Xiang Liu’s instructions before nodding and bowing to Xiang Liu. He turned and rode the waves towards the direction of the ocean.

That seems to suggest that XL knew in advance that he would be creating the blood jewel and sending it to TSJ via the ocean and that it would need a special shell to protect it, and he had time to commission that custom shell and to have it forged by the famous Jintian family. And if he knew that he would be creating the blood jewel that long ago, that must also mean that he had been planning to revive TSJ (with the blood jewel) from that point too. 

Seond, TSJ had already been missing for more than six years by that point, and he said he fell unconscious right after TSH kicked him. 

-----

Chapter 46:

He lifted his head and pressed it right next to her face and said softly, “It’s been six years since Jing died, right? You still haven’t accepted his death. On this trip to Qing Shui Town you didn’t even pay a visit to the last place he was at before he died.”

-----

Chapter 49:

Jing explained, “Hou forced me to duel and I secretly ate the life preserving pill you gave me beforehand. I wanted to jump into the water to escape and Hou kicking me in the water helped my plan along. But his kick was much stronger than expected and I fainted in the water. When I woke up it was five days ago at dawn on a deserted island in the East Sea. A mercouple saved me but I couldn’t communicate in their language. We communicated in gestures and I figured out that they found me unconscious in the ocean and didn’t know who I was or how to wake me. They placed me on the deserted island and fed me herbs from time to time. Luckily there are tons of strange treasures in the ocean and they accidentally chanced upon the right sea herbs to wake me up. I rushed back worried about you and only then did I learn seven years had passed. The Yellow Emperor told me you were not on Sheng Nong Mountain and told me to rush to Jade Mountain.”

-----

While the life-preserving pill that XY created for TSJ in chapter 33 clearly helped him avoid dying from the injuries that TSH inflicted on him, it couldn't protect him from every danger in the ocean. And unlike XY, TSJ cannot breathe under water. 

In the six years between TSJ's disappearance and chapter 46, any number of things could have happened to TSJ's body. He could have simply drowned. He could have been eaten by a sea monster that would've been all too happy to gobble up an unconscious deity. His body could have entered a global current and disappeared to the furthest reaches of the earth. His body could have been sucked into a whirlpool like the one that XY faced in chapter 43 and torn to shreds. 

-----

Chapter 42:

Whether it was Tu Shan people or Zhuan Xu’s people, every person was doing everything possible and searching the ocean area nearby. But it was still the ocean, the vast open ocean, forget looking for one person, even sinking an entire mountain into the ocean it would be difficult to find it. Plus there were lots of demon water beasts and sea monsters in the ocean, and gods had godly powers that were the favorite foods of those sea creatures.

-----

But none of those things happened. Instead, XL knew where TSJ's body was and that it was possible to revive him (as it seems highly implausible that he would have had the blue shell made and made the blood jewel if he wasn't quite confident about both of those things). Which, to me, suggests that XL, or merpeople working under XL's instructions, had already found TSJ's body and taken it to a safe place back sometime before the point when XL commissioned the blue shell and decided that he would create the blood jewel to revive TSJ. 

@AH 

"My interpretation was that XL used the method that would ensure that XY would never be pressured by anyone else, or even herself (as she was given every opportunity to call off the wedding with Feng Long, but still decided to go through with it), to marry someone who she didn't love and who didn't love her (and specifically would only marry if it was someone like TSJ who would love her enough to not care at all about her ruined reputation) while also thoroughly concealing his true feelings and motives from her and pushing her away from himself and towards TSJ (after re-confirming that she was still willing to marry YSQ). That dynamic seemed especially clear on XY's last day in QS town, when XL's drastic push led XY to go and visit TSJ. A visit that marked the beginning of the process of XY and TSJ starting to reconcile for the first time after the FFYY pregnancy / marriage broke them apart. " 

When did this happen in the  that   chapter?  For XL to push her away  from himself and towards Jing alike you said   would indicate that XL though he had her and was  giving her  it to Jing.   We all know that is not the case. Xl via the bug  connection  has always knows that XY had deep and strong  feelings for Jing. He knew that he never had XY's.  

XL knew that XY wanted to use him to runaway from the hurtful reality of her life. This does not mean he had her.