Hao Chen tries to create distance between Xuan Ji and Si Feng and Xuan Ji tries to figure out how to interact with Si Feng after his confession. But they both decide to put their own feelings — awkward or not — on pause in order to find Min Yan and Ling Long.
Recap
Xuan Ji lies awake in bed at night, giggling to herself over how soft Si Feng’s lips were. Then she catches herself and reminds herself not to think about him.
Si Feng frowns as he remembers how Xuan Ji reacted to his confession. He’s interrupted by Yan Ran communicating telepathically with him. She’s disguised herself and made it into Tianxu Hall.
The next morning, Xuan Ji physically runs into Si Feng. He apologizes if he scared her the night before. She holds her arms out defensively and says that they should probably keep some distance between them, at least until her heart stops beating. He tries to turn it into a joke. Does that mean she doesn’t want to see him until they’re dead?
Hao Chen interrupts, saying that Xuan Ji’s meaning should be clear. He sends Xuan Ji off to practice her meditative spell, then tells Si Feng that he heard all about his unwelcome advances toward her last night. Si Feng points out that Xuan Ji may not have her six senses, but she’s still capable of thinking for herself. She doesn’t need someone else to make decisions for her. Hao Chen responds that Xuan Ji has more important things to do than waste her time on something as impermanent as love. He reminds Si Feng that Xuan Ji planted a heart lantern, but it didn’t glow in his hands — her heart will never be his.
Chu Lei, Dongfang Qing Qi, and Yuan Lang go to Xuanyuan where they find a bloodbath on the sect grounds. They look for Zhu Shi’s body and find him, unconscious but still breathing, and bring him back to Fuyu Island. They manage to revive Zhu Shi, who wants to reclaim possession of the Tianji Pearl so he can restart his sect. Dongfang and the other sect leaders are reluctant to let Zhu Shi take his spirit key. The keys are too important and they think it will be risky for Zhu Shi to try and protect it on his own. Zhu Shi is upset that they’re trying to withhold his own treasure from him.
Si Feng and Xuan Ji run into each other as both head toward Zhu Shi’s rooms to try and ask after Min Yan and Ling Long. Xuan Ji tries to avoid him, but Si Feng has already seen her. He reassures her that he even though he won’t take back what he said, he also won’t force her to do anything. He knows she’s also worried about Min Yan and Ling Long and says that they can talk about themselves after they make sure that Min Yan and Ling Long are safe.
Xuan Ji is about to say something to Si Feng, but is interrupted when Zhu Shi shows up. They ask if he knows where Min Yan and Ling Long are, but he doesn’t know much, other than that he knows the Tianxu Hall demons have a penchant for capturing disciples.
Ouyang, dressed in Zhu Shi’s clothes, staggers through the woods, followed by someone. He looks slightly relieved when it’s Qing Rong and not someone else. He used magic and some of Zhu Shi’s blood to take on his appearance, but it only worked for a brief while. He’s upset that the other sect leaders wouldn’t give him in the Tianji Pearl.
Qing Rong knew that the leaders wouldn’t give up the spirit key so easily once they had it. Entering Dongfang’s vault won’t be easy, because it can only be opened by a jade butterfly that he must willingly summon. Qing Rong reassures Ouyang that she’ll get him the jade butterfly as long as he treats her well. Ouyang is aware that Wu Tong has captured Ling Long and says that they can always find some use for her as well.
Si Feng and Xuan Ji ask for Yu Ning’s help in casting a divination spell to see how Min Yan and Ling Long are doing. Yu Ning needs an item that one of them has touched. Xuan Ji pulls out the fabric flower Min Yan gave to her for her birthday four years ago. The sight of it reminds Si Feng of that day. She had asked him what color it was and when he said blue, she said it was her favorite color. She had said the same thing again in Dingkun’s cave with the blue flower petals. He frowns.
Yu Ning casts the divination spell. The result isn’t good: extreme bad luck. Xuan Ji asks Yu Ning to try again. Yu Ning says that divination isn’t real magic so it might not be correct and looks to Si Feng for help. Si Feng makes up an excuse about how maybe the flower has been separated from Min Yan for too long so the reading is inaccurate. Xuan Ji picks up her flower and continues to look worried.
Hao Chen grows suspicious of Zhu Shi, realizing that he should’ve died from the Tianxu Hall’s poison, even if he survived the demons’ attack.
Min Yan wakes up in the hunter’s hut. When he finds out that he’s been unconscious for days, he immediately rises. He needs to find Ling Long.
He goes outside right as two of his fellow Shaoyang disciples walk up, struggling with Yu Er, whom they’ve captured using a magical lasso. They’re relieved to see him and he’s surprised to see Yu Er. Yu Er asks Min Yan to tell them to let her go. She knows where Ling Long is.
Once she’s free, Yu Er tells Min Yan that she joined up with a band of minor demons after running away from her father. Through them, she heard about Tianxu Hall, a place where demons could eat and drink well. When she got there, she saw Ling Long being taken inside. She wanted to rescue Ling Long, but the place was guarded too well, so she left to try and find one of Ling Long’s friend instead. Now, she can show Min Yan where they are, but only if agrees that this will pay back the debt she owes him for helping save her life.
Min Yan wants to go immediately, but his fellow disciples are logical enough to know that the three of them aren’t enough to defeat the demons. Min Xing, the older disciple, tells Min Yan, Min Jue, and Yu Er to go on ahead while he goes back to Fuyu Island for backup.
Yan Ran overhears some demons gossiping about how Wu Tong captured a beautiful woman and a piece of mirror during the Gaoshi Mountain battle. She goes to investigate his room and finds Ling Long. They’re unable to break Ling Long’s shackles, so Yan Ran gives her a dagger while she looks for the mirror. Ling Long points her to a hiding place that Wu Tong uses. Before Yan Ran can find the mirror, Wu Tong returns and she hides.
Wu Tong harasses Ling Long again for a moment before telling her that he has some business to take care of and will be back to keep her company at night. He heads over to his hiding place and takes out the mirror, tucking it into his robes, but also notices a bit of dust on the ground. He asks Ling Long who came by. She responds as vaguely as possible. He investigates his room, suspicious.
Before Wu Tong can find Yan Ran’s hiding place, Ling Long throws a bowl of rice and yells at him. It works in distracting him, but he promises to pay her extra special attention at night, nuzzling his face against her hand in a way that disgusts her, then leaves.
Yan Ran tells Ling Long to keep trying to break her chains. She needs to take care of some things and then she’ll be back to rescue Ling Long. She leaves with a wink, then trails Wu Tong as he goes to a secluded cavern where he meets with the Tianxu leader.
Wu Tong presents the piece of mirror to the Tianxu leader, who takes it and strikes Wu Tong with a bolt of energy. He’s displeased with Wu Tong’s inability to retrieve the spirit key and knows all about how he captured Ling Long for himself. He tells Wu Tong to cut off Ling Long’s hand and send it to the Shaoyang leader so that the sects will exchange the spirit keys for Ling Long’s safety. Wu Tong seems reluctant, but promises to put on a good show.
The Tianxu leader teleports away. Yan Ran tries to follow him, but loses his trail. At first, she wants to go tell Si Feng about the mirror, but then remembers Ling Long and decides to go save her instead.
Ling Long manages to break free from the chain that anchors her to the wall. She starts to sneak out, but runs into Wu Tong on his way back. She tries to stab him with the dagger, but he stops her easily and flings her onto the bed. He climbs on top of her. She yells that he should just kill her instead, but Wu Tong won’t let her die that easily. He’s bitter about how the five sects joined to hunt him down and made him live a life worse than death when he didn’t even kill Xuan Ji. He rips open the front of his robes and forces Ling Long to look at all the scars that mar his chest, each one an example of a time he should’ve died but didn’t. He makes her feel his leg, which is fake. He promises her that he will take down her father, her sister, her lover, and she will be at his mercy through it all.
Hao Chen goes to look for Zhu Shi, who is not in his rooms, but approaches from outside. Hao Chen offers Zhu Shi a poison antidote and pressures him into taking it in front of him. Zhu Shi does, but seems fine. Hao Chen takes his leave, but still seems suspicious of Zhu Shi. After Zhu Shi enters his rooms, he collapses to the ground, coughing up blood and a red stone given to him by the Tianxu leader that allowed him to make it past this test.
Ling Long is brought before Wu Tong in front of the demons in his division. He tells her about his plans to send her arm to her father. Ling Long says that she’s not afraid of him and that her father won’t surrender. She closes her eyes, ready to lose her arm, but then someone else yells in pain. Wu Tong has chopped off the arm of another woman. Ling Long’s jade bracelet is wrestled off her wrist and put on the other woman’s dismembered arm.
Wu Tong pulls out a magical object, a bell that will draw her soul out of her body. He plans on making her body submit to his will before returning her soul to it.
Yan Ran goes to Wu Tong’s room but Ling Long is gone. She hears a commotion and follows it to where all the other demons are gathered, just in time to see Ling Long’s unconscious body be dragged out. Wu Tong holds Yan Ran’s dagger and asks who it belongs to. No one responds, so he has one of his demons call out every recent recruit to Tianxu Hall. He intends on questioning each one of them.
Yan Ran is trapped in the line-up. She telepathically calls out to Si Feng, telling him what happened and asking for him to save her.
Xuan Ji comes running up to Si Feng right after he hears from Yan Ran, reporting that Min Xing, one of the disciples who found Min Yan, has returned and found Min Yan. They can find Ling Long now. Si Feng quickly tells her that Ling Long is in danger and pulls out his bell, which he claims to have repaired. He and Xuan Ji hurry off to go find Ling Long.
Yan Ran is one of five demons whose alibis can’t be corroborated. Wu Tong decides to test them by bringing forth some captured disciples. They must kill the disciples, otherwise Wu Tong will kill them. Yan Ran is the first to go. She remembers Si Feng telling her about a part of the body that bleeds profusely so that people often use it to feign death, then stabs the disciple.
Yu Er leads Min Yan and Min Jue to the Tianxu Hall’s caves, where they decide to split up to cover more ground. Min Yan finds the cavern with the demon gathering, arriving just in time to see Yan Ran stab the disciple. He gasps and shifts, making a sound that attracts Wu Tong’s attention. Wu Tong sends his sword flying and Min Yan dodges, revealing himself.
Yan Ran tries to mouth for Min Yan to leave, but Min Yan doesn’t notice her and instead attacks Wu Tong. Unfortunately, Min Yan isn’t really a match for Wu Tong and gets knocked down. Min Jue arrives in time to find him and casts a cloaking spell that fills the cavern with smoke so that he can extract Min Yan. Wu Tong tries to follow, but Yan Ran blocks his way. He knocks her aside.
Yan Ran tries to block Wu Tong again in the hallway. This time he gets a good look at her face and summons glowing purple energy ropes to bind and choke her. Before he gets too far, he’s attacked again, this time by Si Feng. Wu Tong’s spell on Yan Ran disappears and she falls. Ruo Yu catches her.
Wu Tong tries to defend himself and retaliate, but Si Feng is too strong and Wu Tong eventually flees. Si Feng checks on Yan Ran, then reclaims her, making her human form disappear. He and Ruo Yu go look for the others.
Commentary
I don’t know why or how he tries to exist with two identities, but Yuan Lang must be the Tianxu Hall leader, right? Their mouths look exactly the same and their magic looks the same, too. I’ve thought this since the beginning, but keep getting thrown off because I expect Yuan Lang/the Tianxu leader to know more and react differently if they’re one and the same.
Poor Ruo Yu, he’s in love with Yan Ran who will probably never be able to love him back the way he wants to be loved. For one, she’s not even human. Even though inter-species relationships are totally possible, as evidenced by Yu Er’s existence, Yan Ran is also spirit-bound to Si Feng, which means that he will always be her number-one priority.
The Drama Llama 