I just wanted to say again that this is completely my headcanon now. Seriously, this is brilliant! It's so convincing - Wang Xiangyang clearly is being heavily affected by using the Merit Brush (witness all the coughing this episode!), and his hair going white as a result of channelling a lot of power is exactly on trope.

I always thought him choosing to bleach his hair was weird, because he doesn't seem to be the type to go for that kind of image, nor does he really lean into it. But if we interpret it like this, suddenly it all makes sense! Thank you so much!