When things seem too good to be true, that’s probably because they are. Nothing lasts forever, and this episode, there are quite a few goodbyes.
Recap
Xuan Ji tries to help Si Feng hold on, then notices as the snow mushroom goes through its final stage of development. She hugs him and tells him to look. They smile up at it. Si Feng tells her that she can finally be at ease now. He’s not that doomed.
Ruo Yu wakes up to find Xiao Yin Hua in his arms. He gently shakes her and she wakes up, too. He tells her that she’s free. The heavenly tribulation has passed the blood oath is broken. She smiles, but everyone’s joy is short-lived, because the remaining moths swarm to the snow mushroom. Xuan Ji tries to blast them away, but it’s too late — the mushroom is gone.
Xuan Ji turns to Si Feng, devastated. How are they going to save him now?
Xiao Yin Hua demands to know what’s going on. Why is Si Feng going to die?
Yuan Lang reveals himself inside the murder of crows and laughs. He’ll finally get to see Si Feng die in front of him. Who else other than him would be so eager to see Si Feng die? Yuan Lang also gives credit to Si Feng’s “stupid spirit beast” who helped execute his plan so well.
Yuan Lang tells Xiao Yin Hua exactly what she did. The moths didn’t have to be raised on mushrooms, but once they were, they would only eat mushrooms. So when the moths were brought here, to this cave, they immediately flocked to the only mushroom in sight — Si Feng’s precious snow mushroom.
Xuan Ji is furious and tries to attack Yuan Lang, but he doesn’t have a corporeal body. The crows simply scatter and then reform. He says that it’s not just him she has to worry about — the entire heavenly realm isn’t going to let her go. Xuan Ji says that she’ll kill them as they come. Yuan Lang laughs and says that her focus right now should be on how to make sure Si Feng continues living.
Si Feng gently tells Xuan Ji to ignore Yuan Lang and to not waste her life on thoughts of revenge. Xuan Ji tells him that without him, she won’t go on living alone. But he calls her silly and reminds her of everyone else she has: her father and her sister. How can she abandon them?
Regardless of how this life ends for him, he’s already content knowing that he is in her heart. He has no regrets. He tells Xuan Ji that she needs to be well.
Yuan Lang chooses to interrupt and say it’s a bit premature to talk about life and death. Si Feng doesn’t have to die. There is one way to save Si Feng — open the Liuli lamp. When Mosha Star is resurrected, Juntian Cehai will naturally rejoin with him and leave Si Feng.
Si Feng glares up at Yuan Lang and warns him to stop saying nonsense. But Yuan Lang says that Xuan Ji should think about it — whether it’s true or not will be clear if she does. Whether she wants to save Si Feng is also up to her. Yuan Lang smiles and takes his leave with a spinning flourish.
Si Feng turns to Xuan Ji and tells her not to listen to Yuan Lang. He’s trying to trick her.
Xiao Yin Hua scurries over to Si Feng and tries to tell him that she didn’t do it on purpose. She begs him not to abandon her. But Si Feng just reminds her that she’s free now and not bound to him anymore. He turns to Xuan Ji. He doesn’t have much time left and all he wants is to spend the time he does have left with Xuan Ji.
Si Feng reminds Xuan Ji that Xiao Yin Hua was manipulated. This is just his fate and not anyone else’s fault. “Let’s go,” he says.
Xuan Ji sniffles as she gently helps Si Feng up. Si Feng collapses against her and she holds him protectively. Xiao Yin Hua looks concerned, but Xuan Ji glares at her and warns her not to come any closer. If she does, Xuan Ji will kill her.
Ruo Yu holds Xiao Yin Hua as she cries.
Xuan Ji carries Si Feng through the forest, then spots traces of red smoke around them. Teng She finds them and takes Si Feng from her. The red smoke is a sign of Zhu Que, and the rest of the heavenly beasts are nearby. Xuan Ji tells Teng She to take care of Si Feng. She will confront the heavenly beasts. She turns Si Feng and Teng She into a tree.
Xuan Ji attacks Zhu Que’s red cloud and forces the heavenly beasts to reveal themselves. She demands to know why they’re still after Si Feng when it’s clear he’s not Mosha Star. They say it’s her they’re after. Bai Lin has ordered them to bring her back to the heavenly realm. But Xuan Ji has no interest in the heavenly realm and won’t go with them. They notice Xuan Ji’s interest in a particular tree. Xuan Ji attacks them before they can hurt the tree. Teng She reveals himself to help Xuan Ji.
The heavenly beasts taunt Teng She about being Xuan Ji’s spirit beast. But Teng She talks a big talk and essentially tells them to come at him. He’s ready to fight, but Xuan Ji tells him that he doesn’t need to be involved. After all, he’s still a member of the heavenly realm. If he fights against the Heavenly Beasts, he’ll be directly opposing the heavenly realm itself. When he doesn’t listen, she makes him listen with the blood pearl. She won’t let him be dragged into this.
Xuan Ji awakens her inner god and fights them.
Ruo Yu and Xiao Yin Hua come upon the blood smoke. Ruo Yu tries to hold Xiao Yin Hua back, warning her that she won’t be able to survive it, but Xiao Yin Hua is worried Si Feng is in danger and doesn’t care about her own life anymore. Ruo Yu says that if she wants to give up her life, he’ll go with her. But not like this. He feels the wind and determines the source of the smoke. That’s where they should go.
Xuan Ji knocks the heavenly beasts around, but Si Feng reappears when the glamor around him has fallen and Xuan Wu throws his weapon at him. Xuan Ji notices too late, but Xiao Yin Hua arrives in time to shield Si Feng. Ruo Yu catches her, but she has eyes only for Si Feng before she passes out.
The heavenly beasts attempt to trap Xuan Ji in a spell, but she breaks out and knocks all of them to the ground. Wu Zhi Qi flies in and greets her, then demands to know which one of the beasts hurt his little fox. The heavenly beasts quickly retreat.
Later, Xiao Yin Hua wakes up, still pale, but calling Si Feng’s name. She ignores Ruo Yu and scurries out in search of Si Feng, who lies unconscious in his own bed. Xuan Ji stands up to give them some space.
Si Feng wakes up and slowly sits up. Xiao Yin Hua asks him not to hate her. He says he never has and offers to help heal her wounds, but she shakes her head. She knows she doesn’t have much time left. All she wants is to lie by his side like she did when she was younger. He lets her.
Ting Nu, Wu Zhi Qi, and Zi Hu appear outside the window.
Xiao Yin Hua says that she used to dream about how she could become a real person once she got her freedom, like Xuan Ji. But now she realizes how silly she was. The more she tried to be like Xuan Ji, the more Si Feng pushed her away.
Xiao Yin Hua turns to Xuan Ji and says that once she dies, there will be no one who will say anything bad about Xuan Ji. Xuan Ji must be happy. But Xuan Ji just crouches down next to her and says that she knows Xiao Yin Hua thought Si Feng was the most important person in the world. She feels sad for Xiao Yin Hua. Xiao Yin Hua laughs and says that cultivators like Xuan Ji always talk pretty, but she doesn’t believe them.
Xiao Yin Hua coughs. Si Feng takes her hand. Xiao Yin Hua smiles up at him. Wouldn’t it be great if she becomes a cultivator in her next life? He just smiles sadly back at her. She lays her head on his palm and says that if she could just lay in his palm as a small snake her whole life, that would make her happy, too.
“I’m so tired,” Xiao Yin Hua whispers. She asks to sleep and for Si Feng not to wake her up. She closes her eyes. Ruo Yu collapses toward her, crying, as he raises one of her hands to his lips. Si Feng says to her that she wasn’t just his spirit beast, she was also his friend. But why did she obsess over something that could never happen and never look to see the person who wanted to be by her side?
Ruo Yu picks Xiao Yin Hua up. He says that he’ll take her back to the western shore by Lize Palace where they first met. There, she can sleep soundly.
Si Feng tells him to wait. Xuan Ji helps him get out of bed. He grabs his cloak, wanting to send Xiao Yin Hua off for the last time, and throws it over Xiao Yin Hua in Ruo Yu’s arms. Ruo Yu thanks Si Feng. If she knew, she would be very happy.
At night, Xuan Ji checks on Yi Huan. He doesn’t care about the heavenly eye — it was stolen anyway and he knew the heavenly realm would want it back anyway — but he’s worried about Yu Er. Wu Zhi Qi is also angry at the heavenly realm for their interference and yells up at the sky, threatening to fight his way up there. Zi Hu tries to calm him down — they were just injured. Besides, didn’t he think she was ugly anyway?
They all find Ting Nu and ask how Si Feng is doing. He’s not doing very well. Ting Nu fears that it’ll be impossible to suppress Juntian Cehai’s energy anymore. He might have a month left, at best.
But Xuan Ji remembers that there’s still one option left: resurrect Mosha Star. Ting Nu, Zi Hu, and Yi Huan remind Xuan Ji that resurrecting Mosha Star will upend the world order. There’s no turning back if she does it.
Xuan Ji brings Si Feng some soup and feeds him. He smiles weakly at how fortunate he is to have her feed him, but also at how useless he is. Xuan Ji reassures him that he’ll be better soon. He suddenly grows serious and takes her hands, asking if she’s planning on opening the Liuli lamp and resurrecting Mosha Star.
He reminds her that this is Yuan Lang’s evil plan. Xuan Ji knows that this is Yuan Lang’s plan, but also that this is the only way to save Si Feng. But what if by resurrecting Mosha Star, she makes the whole world suffer? All Xuan Ji knows is that what Si Feng’s talking about is a supposition. No one knows what will happen after Mosha Star is resurrected. But if the Liuli lamp isn’t opened, Si Feng will die.
Xuan Ji reassures Si Feng that she has the God of War’s strength. She defeated Mosha Star once and sealed his heart soul. She can do it again. But Si Feng says no. It’s not that he doesn’t trust her, but there’s no room for error. What if she fails? What about everyone else?
But Xuan Ji says they have no other choice. They’ve missed each other so many times. All she cares about is being able to stay with him. Si Feng says he wants that too, but if the world is destroyed, then he will be world’s greatest sinner. She has to promise him not to do it. He suddenly starts coughing again.
Xuan Ji frantically says that she’ll promise. She’ll agree to whatever he wants.
But she still needs to go back to Shaoyang, for her father’s birthday, but also for something else very important that she needs to do. “Marry me,” he says. She nods and they embrace. But then Si Feng remembers that he doesn’t have much time left — he’ll just be holding her back. He tries to pull away, but she clings to him. She grabs his hand — she knows that in this life she won’t marry anyone else. No matter how much time he has left, she also doesn’t want to have any regrets. He has to agree to marry her. He does.
Teng She is napping against a tree when Bai Lin himself appears before him. Teng She hastily bows. Bai Lin orders Teng She to return to the heavenly realm in one day’s time to receive his punishment, otherwise he’ll be labeled a traitor. Every day that he delays, everyone else’s punishment will increase.
Teng She brings Xuan Ji some food from town. She can tell he has something to say and tells him to say it. He asks her to either figure out a way to break the oath or allow him to leave forever. He has to go. She thinks he’s kidding around — why does he suddenly want to leave? Teng She brings up a bunch of different things that have made him upset, but she can tell that he’s hiding the truth and gets angry back at him.
Teng She provokes Xuan Ji into an argument that ends with Xuan Ji yelling that Teng She can leave if he wants. She never wants to see him again. He looks sad that he’s finally gotten what he wanted, but she doesn’t look at him. He leaves her with a parting warning — she must not open the Liuli lamp; she’ll regret it. That only makes her angrier. He leaves with a regretful backward glance. Xuan Ji seems even more upset once she realizes that he’s actually gone.
Wu Zhi Qi comes outside and tells Xuan Ji that letting Teng She leave was the best choice for him, otherwise he’d forever be torn between two worlds. Xuan Ji knows, but she just didn’t want to see him go.
Wu Zhi Qi says that they should discuss what they plan to do next. Xuan Ji asks if he knows why the heavenly realm is after her. He’s not sure, but thinks it must have something to do with the last time they met, when he lured her down to the devil realm. Xuan Ji tells Wu Zhi Qi what she can remember and what she can’t. She doesn’t remember the mural the Xiuluo King showed her and didn’t see it when she went to the devil realm either. All she remembers is coming out of the devil realm feeling like the entire heavenly realm had used her and wanting to destroy it all. She feels like the heavenly realm is hiding something.
Wu Zhi Qi thinks it must have something to do with Mosha Star and the Liuli lamp. The heavenly realm didn’t take any action until after the incident, and now they’ve sent people here to kill her. Xuan Ji decides that she must find out the truth and that she must open the lamp. Only then will she be able to save Si Feng. She asks Wu Zhi Qi to help her when she gets back to Shaoyang. He’s more than happy to.
Xuan Ji and Si Feng prepare to head back to Shaoyang. Si Feng is still worried he’s holding Xuan Ji back from the rest of her life, but she tells him that now that she has her six senses, her heart is clear. She knows she will be happiest after they’re together. Si Feng offers to do her brows again, and it’s a sweet echo of the first time he ever did them and his promise that in the future, he would paint her brows every day.
They’re about to leave when Ah Lan drops by, asking if they’re going somewhere. Si Feng tells her that there’s somewhere he needs to go, and he won’t ever be coming back.
Commentary
As much as I wanted Yuan Lang gone, he’s also kind of hilarious. He looooves revealing truths when they’ll be most inconvenient. At this point, he just wants to cause chaos because he’s so petty. What does he have to gain from Mosha Star’s resurrection? He can’t control him anymore. He wants it just because it’ll cause Si Feng pain.
Xuan Ji and Si Feng have gone back and forth so many times that normally I would be so frustrated. But part of their legend and their love story is the endless cycles that they get trapped in, and I hope that this really is their chance to break the cycle, somehow. I like the way that Xuan Ji pointed out Si Feng also needs to change — she can’t be the only one.
The Drama Llama 