Your personal Tumblr journey starts here
People saying that Hua Cheng apparently has no interests outside of Xie Lian is so wild to me.
He is a sculptor and painter, he rules Ghost City, clearly has fun at the Gambling Den, pretends hes not friends with He Xuan (when they clearly share SOME form of camaraderie for him to LIE to XIE LIAN about it), is very well read (he would have to be, to defeat literature gods) and finally, clearly has fun with aesthetics/visuals, both in his residence and his clothing/powers (he didnt HAVE to go with a butterfly motif, he picked his aesthetic and IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH XIE LIAN).
He is a powerful ghost king who lords over his city and he loves it. Xie Lian also loves it (simp)
You know who didnt have any interests or opinions outside of Xie Lian? Wu Ming. Wu Ming followed him and didnt care about anything but him. And he didnt manage to stop Xie Lian or change his mind, a random guy with a bamboo hat did. In a way? That was a lesson for him. So he goes to Mount Tonglu, and slowly, over the centuries, he becomes his own person. By the time they meet again, he is fully his own individual.
Seriously, just because the guy is madly in love, doesnt mean he doesn't have a life. Dont take that away from him, just for a ridiculous 'hualian's relationship is unhealthy, actually' take.
Edit: thank you @ignite-the-moonlight for pointing out that he collects rare items as well