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Xie Lian carves off pieces of himself to save whoever he can, whenever it seems like that might help. He'll survive it, so why shouldn't he? That's the reasoning he'll give if you ask, alongside an awkward, apologetic laugh.
Hua Cheng isn't so benevolent. When he carves pieces off himself, it's for the purpose of honing himself to a knife's edge. He's toiled away for centuries, chiseling away every imperfection he can find and shaping himself into whatever form will be of the most use to Xie Lian. He won't hand over his leftover pieces to anyone else either, even when he'd be happier to discard them—all those inferior parts of himself that he doesn't want Xie Lian to see. They aren't for him to discard, after all. Every piece of him is Xie Lian's, and no one else's… not even his own.
For a long time, Feng Xin and Mu Qing would also slice away bits of themselves like that, for Xie Lian's sake. Mu Qing can't help but resent doing it. Feng Xin can't help but resent that Mu Qing allows himself to resent doing it. Neither of them breathes a word about their sacrifices to Xie Lian, who had never asked them to do any of it and would insist he didn't want them to do any of it either. (Privately, silently, they both believe Xie Lian had wanted them to do it—wanted to reap the benefits of their loyalty—he just didn't want to know what they'd had to give up to make it happen.)
They can't turn their knives on Xie Lian, so they turn their knives on each other. But offering up gobbets of each other alongside pieces of themselves doesn't make anything any better, for anyone. And, after a while, neither of them can afford to give up any more.
When Quan Yizhen attempts to hew himself to Yin Yu's wishes, he fails. His hands are clumsy around the hammer and chisel he's handed, and he doesn't understand the shape of what Yin Yu wants. Yin Yu always just sighs and takes the tools back in hand and tells him it's alright, he's tried hard enough, he's fine as he is after all.
For many years, Quan Yizhen is given no reason to disbelieve that. He spends his days swinging his sword instead—wildly, thoughtlessly, happily—cutting chunks off of Yin Yu with a painful and ironic precision.
Yin Yu knows Quan Yizhen doesn't mean to cut him—his foolish little shidi doesn't even realize he's bleeding. He reminds himself of that every time a strike hits home, and he restrains himself from retaliation. He puts on the kind mask that's expected of him while his wounds fester untreated underneath. He never raises a hand to harm Quan Yizhen, until the day that he does.
Shi Wudu shows no such hesitation before he carves all the flesh from He Xuan's bones. He takes everything that makes He Xuan human—makes him better than human—and gives it all to Shi Qingxuan, who blithely accepts every bit of it without a second thought.
Shi Qingxuan never intends to cut into He Xuan, but somehow he manages to slice deeper than his brother ever had, past bone and into marrow.
It takes a long time for He Xuan to understand why finally taking back what he's owed hurts like he'd turned the knife on himself instead.
Perhaps that's all any of these gods and calamities had been doing all along—the opposite of what they'd hoped. Their blades, no matter how carefully or expertly wielded, always ended up cutting both ways.
Hua Cheng begs Xie Lian to stop laughing off his own pain, but he won't let Xie Lian know enough to request he do the same. Aching, Feng Xin and Mu Qing both leave Xie Lian behind, but even centuries can't dull the sting of the past or the barbs they aim at each other. Quan Yizhen won't hear a word from anyone but Yin Yu, so he never credits any of the grievances that Yin Yu is too ashamed to voice himself. Shi Wudu's head hits the ground and Shi Qingxuan screams and there's no world in which He Xuan would have abandoned his vengeance, but he wonders if maybe there's a world where he'd gotten it a slightly different way.
Still, isn't it a sort of justice that the wounds you inflict on yourself will hurt the ones you want to protect, while the ones you inflict on others will cause you just as much pain in the end?