WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 2 of Heaven Official's Blessing, "Mountain-Locked Ming Guang" now streaming on Funimation.
The mystery of the ghost groom that steals brides continues in the second episode of Heaven Official's Blessing. With the man who led Xie Lian out of his sedan making an early exit, and more questions surrounding the 17 missing brides and Mount Yujun arising, the ghost groom may not be who they originally thought.
The last episode ended with Xie Lian and the figure in red walking off together. In Episode 2, the latter is silent as they continue forward -- save for the bells on his boots and the sound of blood rain falling. Considering how easily he dispersed the magical formation, Xie Lian thinks this must be someone powerful. Just as the figure in red is about to lift his veil, Xie Lian catches sight of a crimson bead adorning his braid. He releases his silk band and the figure immediately dissolves into a hundred silver butterflies.
A single butterfly leads him to the Ming Guang temple -- one that supposedly doesn't exist. Inside the temple are the 17 brides, standing in two lines. Xie Lian lifts up the corner of one of the veils and hears the song warning brides not to smile, announcing the ghost groom's arrival.
Immediately, he hides amongst the brides and, as the ghost groom gets closer, chases after what turns out to be a dark fog. The dark fog is gone by the time he's outside but the bounty hunters arrive just then. Xie Lian determines that the ghost groom must be hiding amongst them and has the ability to change his appearance. But just then, they have an unexpected visitor in the form of Xiao Ying, who followed them. The bounty hunters run into the temple, discovering the brides, and decide to take only the freshest bodies back. Xie Lian warns them that the veils are the only thing suppressing the toxic Death Qi.
Xiao Pengtou doesn't listen, of course, even though Xiao Ying tries to stop him. He's about to hit her before a rock smacks him in the face. The bounty hunter chases after that person into the woods but, a few seconds later, runs back out, covered in the hanging corpses' blood.
Nan Feng and Fu Yao think that the ghost groom may have something to do with the Green Immor, a Wrath-level ghost almost at the Devastation level (hence the half-finished word 'Immortal'), since he loves hanging corpses upside down in the woods. Xie Lian asks them whether the figure with the butterflies could possibly be the Green Immor.
The description of the silver butterflies prompts Fu Yao to immediately set off for the heavens despite Xie Lian's insistence that the man posed no ill intent. Suddenly, one of the bounty hunters drags a boy with blood-stained bandages wrapped around his face out of the woods -- a boy Xiao Ying occasionally brings food for.
Xie Lian insists that the boy isn't the ghost groom, though, leading Xie Lian and Nan Feng to head back to the temple to subdue the 18 brides -- one extra because the ghost groom must be hiding amongst them. But they're too late: all of the brides are already being carried back to the village.
Xie Lian reasons that since every other temple burned down except this one, and the brides told not to smile, it must mean only one thing. It wasn't a groom who did it -- it was a jealous and resentful bride. The ghost groom's identity has been revealed (sort of) but now the bigger question remains: if the man who came for Xie Lian wasn't the ghost groom, then who was he..?
