I love the headcanon if Hua Cheng ascended as a god, he would be an elemental god of fire, because it harmonizes with his aesthetic, but I also love my headcanon that he would be a martial god associated with karma, because the whole his character development is premised on returning what is offered to him with greater intensity — returning with petals those who touched him with the kindness of a flower, and with drops of blood those who treated him with the brutality of bloodletting — and, in ultimately, I don't think one headcanon excludes the other, as fire can either heat or burn, illuminate or blind, bringing comfort or pain depending on who approaches it — whether gently, or with contempt —, as a perfect materialization of karma.

I'm not a psychology researcher, but my guess would be that the nature of it being a time-limited puzzle game where you have to juggle multiple factors means that your short-term memory gets filled and the traumatic images are "dumped" in favor of remembering how many times to rotate the L piece. "As soon as possible" is probably because the sooner you do it, the less likely it is to become part of your long-term memory.