Recap: Love and Redemption (Ep. 59)

The end is here! Does the world go up in flames or does true love prevail? I think we all know what the answer is.

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Recap

Si Feng catches the Hongmeng furnace, preventing it from tipping over completely. He won’t let Yuan Lang tip the furnace — Xuan Ji’s memories must be preserved. Yuan Lang tells him he can die, then, and stabs him in the heart.

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Si Feng holds onto the furnace even while stabbed and manages to blast the sword away, knocking Yuan Lang back. Luohou Jidu traps Yuan Lang with a spell. Si Feng faints. Luohou Jidu catches Si Feng, turning into the God of War. “Look, Xuan Ji is here,” the God of War says.

“Are you worried about me?” Si Feng asks with a smile.

“I don’t want you to die,” the God of War responds.

Si Feng smiles. Even if he dies, he won’t have any regrets, now that he’s heard these words. He tells the God of War that he made a bet with Bai Lin. He bet that Luohou Jidu wasn’t a murderous devil, because he has a heart now, and Si Feng knows that in the end, that heart wouldn’t want to destroy the three worlds, because he’s the one who warmed up that heart himself.

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The God of War says that she can save Si Feng. She tries, but Si Feng continues to convulse and tells her there’s no point. His heart has already been broken (as in, stabbed through). But if he had to give up his heart in order for her to find hers, then it’s worth it.

Si Feng cries and tells the God of War that she must protect these three worlds for him, because they hold so many of their shared memories. As long as the three worlds exist, their memories will never disappear. Si Feng asks if Xuan Ji can hear what he’s saying.

Si Feng reminds the God of War that no matter what, she should know that he’s been happy these past time lifetimes. Because in every one, he met her. Then his eyes close and he goes limp. Everyone cries, even Bai Lin. (Well, I suppose we can’t see Yuan Lang or the Heavenly Emperor’s reactions.)

The God of War also finds tears falling down her face. The devil’s mark on her forehead fades and she cries over Si Feng, devastated. There’s a burst of white light and the God of War disappears, replaced by an armourless Xuan Ji, who tells Si Feng that she’s back, but it’s too late.

Yuan Lang uses this opportunity to break free of the spell Luohou Jidu cast on him. He flies toward the furnace, but Xuan Ji stops him in his tracks with one hand. He killed her mother and he killed Si Feng. She’ll make sure he dies. Yuan Lang yells that he’s going to be the ruler of the three worlds and no one can stop him.

Ruo Yu grows steely-eyed, then flies in and stabs Yuan Lang. Yuan Lang took away his everything. He won’t let him destroy the three worlds. But Yuan Lang says that he’s waited a thousand years for this moment and he won’t let anyone stop him. He knocks Ruo Yu away. Ruo Yu falls down and is swallowed by the fiery pit under the furnace. Then Yuan Lang slashes at the furnace and it starts tipping. Xuan Ji turns him to dust, but it’s too late for the furnace.

The heavenly realm shakes as the furnace starts falling. Xuan Ji tries to catch it with her power and asks the Heavenly Emperor to help. She wants the three worlds to exist forever. The Heavenly Emperor asks if this is her final decision. She says that this is her and Si Feng’s final decision. The Heavenly Emperor agrees to help.

They join forces and right the furnace, then return it to its resting place.

After everything is stable, Xuan Ji turns to Si Feng and tells him to open his eyes and look. She did what he wanted. She saved the three worlds. But Si Feng is gone. She hugs him and cries.

The Heavenly Emperor turns to Bai Lin, asking what he thinks of the bet he made with Si Feng. Bai Lin closes his eyes, then kneels and fully acknowledges that he’s committed an unforgivable sin. He ruined the three worlds, harmed all living beings, and ruined Luohou Jidu. He walks over to where Xuan Ji is holding Si Feng and kneels in front of her, asking she punish him with death.

Xuan Ji refuses to look at Bai Lin, but also refuses to kill him. Si Feng is the one who told her that the cycle of revenge will never end. She’s already found the person that’s most important to her — her heart has no room for revenge. From now on, she wants nothing to do with Bai Lin.

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Xuan Ji frowns with a headache and Luohou Jidu splits out of her, taking on his own form. He kneels in front of her and tells her that in this life, she’s luckier than him. She’s found people she cares about and they’re willing to sacrifice themselves for her. She should cherish that. Then he looks sadly at Si Feng and uses his magic on him. Nothing seems to change with Si Feng. Luohou Jidu reaches out a hand, as if to touch Si Feng’s face, but then drops it.

“I wish [he/I?] could live again,” he says. (There’s no pronoun in what he says, so it’s a bit ambiguous whether he’s referring to hoping Si Feng will live again, or if he’s referring to himself, saying he wishes he could have another chance at life. I’m guessing he’s talking about Si Feng, though.)

Luohou Jidu stands and then asks Bai Lin if he remembers the days of the past. Bai Lin remembers how they would drink at the pavilion — he will always remember those days. Luohou Jidu says he will always remember them, too. He summons a glass of wine, reminding Bai Lin that a thousand years ago, they had their last drink together. Luohou Jidu drank the glass that Bai Lin honored him with, but Bai Lin never did the same. Today, he asks Bai Lin to make up for that drink.

Bai Lin agrees to drink this cup. When he picks up the cup from Luohou Jidu’s hand, they both start radiating with a blue flame. Bai Lin drinks. Luohou Jidu says that this situation has finally ended. The other heavenly beings call out to Bai Lin in concern, but he warns them not to approach. He brought this upon himself. Luohou Jidu doesn’t forgive him, but Bai Lin also can’t forgive himself.

Luohou Jidu says that he’s just trying to get justice for himself and everyone else who has been harmed by Bai Lin. He tells Bai Lin that he only has himself to blame and that he’s just getting what he deserves. Bai Lin responds that his thousands of years of cultivation led to nothing. To die like this is what he deserves. The heavenly beings cry for him, but he tells them to take him as a warning. Nothing good will come of resentment and scheming.

Bai Lin addresses the Heavenly Emperor, recognizing that he is no longer worthy of being an immortal. Today, he will start over and restart his cultivation from the beginning. If it’s his destiny in another ten thousand years, he hopes to one day join the Heavenly Emperor again.

He looks back toward Luohou Jidu and smiles. Luohou Jidu gives Xuan Ji and Si Feng a last look, like they’re the ones he’s loath to give up, then meets Bai Lin’s eyes. They fade away.

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The Heavenly Emperor issues a decree to the heavenly beings. The heavenly realm recognizes that it was the first to wrong the devil realm. From now on, the worlds will not be divided by superiority and inferiority. The heavenly beings accept his decree and disappear to spread it across the realm.

Xuan Ji asks the Heavenly Emperor to help save Si Feng. The Heavenly Emperor responds that Si Feng is Xi Xuan, who is his son. As a father, he wants to save him, but he cannot intervene in matters of life and death. However, someone has already tried to help save Si Feng. The Heavenly Emperor reveals that Luohou Jidu gave Si Feng his heart — a piece of his Liuli heart. The heart will prevent Si Feng from dying, but whether it beats again is another matter.

Yi Huan decides to ask the Heavenly Emperor for help as well in finding out what happened to Yu Er. The Heavenly Emperor tells him to go back to Qingyang — Yu Er is waiting for him at home. Yi Huan disappears to return home.

Wu Zhi Qi also asks the Heavenly Emperor for help saving Zi Hu. Since Zi Hu is already dead, the Heavenly Emperor can’t bring her back. He says it’s pointless for Wu Zhi Qi to look for her because she’ll drink the water from Wangchuan, the river of forgetting, and forget all about him. Wu Zhi Qi latches onto the idea that Zi Hu is at Wangchuan and vanishes to go find her.

Teng She is the only one left. Xuan Ji looks at where he kneels, sobbing, and says that she knows how much Bai Lin meant to him. She’ll give him as much time as he needs, but she hopes he’ll return to her one day, no matter if it takes one year or ten thousand years.

Xuan Ji turns to the still-unconscious Si Feng and smiles, saying, “Let’s go home.”

Zi Hu lines up with all the other deceased souls, ready to drink the water of the river of forgetting and enter her new life. She sheds a tear, remembering her life with Wu Zhi Qi one last time, before raising the bowl of water to her lips. Wu Zhi Qi calls out to her and she turns, dropping her bowl in surprise. He hugs her and promises to never leave her again.

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Yi Huan returns to Qingyang, where he spots Yu Er at a food stall on the street. He’s moved to tears to be reunited with her.

Xuan Ji cares for Si Feng, first at Shaoyang, then at his house in the south. He continues to sleep and does not wake, but she cheerfully updates him on what’s happening in everyone’s lives. Xuan Ji promises to wait for him, no matter how long it takes him to wake. The seasons pass.

One day, when they’re back at Shaoyang, Xuan Ji goes to Si Feng’s room to find his bed empty. She races through Shaoyang searching for him and desperately calling his name. She doesn’t find anyone, until finally, she hears her own name. She turns to see Si Feng smiling at her from a rooftop. She breaks into a smile.

Si Feng flies down and they throw themselves into each other’s arms. Then Xuan Ji grabs Si Feng’s hand. She wants to go ask her father about marriage, immediately. Chu Lei agrees to let Xuan Ji and Si Feng be married.

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The day of the wedding, Xuan Ji — who was never one for customs — wanders out of her room in her wedding dress. Ling Long catches her and gently chides her to wait in her room like she’s supposed to. Min Yan shows up with a gift that some kid delivered. Xuan Ji opens the box to find it full of pearls — mermaid’s tears. It’s from Ting Nu.

Yi Huan, Yu Er, and all the sect leaders and elders have gathered for the wedding ceremony. Dongfang Qing Qi even offers his congratulations to Si Feng as he walks through the guests to receive Xuan Ji.

Chu Lei’s voice breaks as he tells Si Feng and Xuan Ji that they must be well. Si Feng says that Xuan Ji is his destiny. He promises to love her in this life and the next. Chu Lei walks Xuan Ji down to Si Feng and joins their hands, formally giving her to him.

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After they bow to Chu Lei and walk down the aisle, hand in hand, Si Feng summons a golden chariot in the sky, then flies Xuan Ji up to it.

They go back to the house in the south, where Si Feng carries Xuan Ji to their bed. She’s suddenly shy and quiet, and he gently teases her about it after removing her wedding veil. She just can’t believe she’s so lucky to have met someone so important in her life. He reminds her that she said she would give him her everything. She better not regret it. She says she won’t.

They touch foreheads. “For life,” Si Feng says. “For all ten of our lives,” Xuan Ji responds.

Three years later, Ling Long is very pregnant but still bustles around Shaoyang, ordering people around as she prepares for Chu Lei’s birthday celebration. Min Yan tries to get her to sit down and rest and they bicker — some things never change. Xuan Ji tries to sneak in a drink of wine during a moment alone, but Si Feng, holding their baby, catches her and snatches the wine out of her hand.

Later, Chu Lei is drunk and stumbling around, challenging everyone to drink with him, while Ling Long and Min Yan try to convince him to stop drinking. Dongfang Qing Qi asks Ting Nu to sneak him another hangover pill when Chu Lei isn’t looking, but Chu Lei catches him and forces him to drink.

Yi Huan and Yu Er show up late. Yi Huan blames Yu Er for their tardiness, while she talks back. Xuan Ji drinks wine while Si Feng chases after her, still holding their child, and tries to get her to hold their kid for a bit. She dodges away, then greets Teng She, who has just shown up. Si Feng manages to pawn their infant off to Teng She for a moment, but Teng She nearly drops the kid while Si Feng follows worriedly. Yi Huan spots the baby and starts talking about how babies love him.

Xuan Ji watches the commotion around her with a smile, remembering what the Heavenly Emperor told her before she left the heavenly realm. He had told her that because she had been made and not born a thousand years ago, her every step has been her own and not predestined by fate. Whether she becomes a devil, an immortal, or a mortal, it’s all her choice. The Heavenly Emperor asked what it feels like to be human.

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Now, Xuan Ji smiles and says that being human is great.

Xuan Ji and Si Feng hug under a peach blossom tree on a mirror-like lake. THE END!

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Commentary

I don’t usually cry at happy endings, but this one was basically all fluff and when Si Feng and Xuan Ji finally got married, I definitely shed a tear. I don’t even mind all the fluff because this is one of those shows where I’m happy that everyone who deserves an ending gets their happy ending, because they deserve a lot of happiness after all they’ve been through.

Everyone got the ending they deserved.

I love that Luohou Jidu seemed to love Si Feng, too, even if it was just a little bit. He literally gave him his heart.

The one thing about endings like these is that because the resolution is so complete (for our main characters, at least), the drama doesn’t linger with me for as long after it’s done. I know that the characters got their happy ending, so I don’t need to wonder about them anymore. In this case, it’s not a bad thing, because I don’t think my heart could take it if we ended with anything else.