Bai Zhen can’t find Bai Qian, but is soon distracted by Zhe Yan’s return.
Dong Hua finds Feng Jiu at Kunlun and also discovers the spell scroll that Bai Qian left behind. He asks Feng Jiu if Bai Qian has any connection with Kunlun, but as far Feng Jiu knows, Bai Qian has never left Qingqiu her whole life.
Li Jing nostalgically wanders to the cave at Kunlun, thinking of Si Yin and wondering where she is. Dong Hua and Feng Jiu run into him. Dong Hua finds it interesting that the abandoned grounds of Kunlun are so busy today.
Thanks to the spell Bai Qian left behind, Dong Hua has deduced what happened with the Donghuang Bell, but how does Bai Qian know the spell? Si Ming accidentally spills the beans to Feng Jiu about Bai Qian’s new betrothal to Ye Hua. They gossip and Feng Jiu asks Si Ming for help figuring out how to repay Dong Hua for saving her life. She also asks Si Ming to bring her to the Celestial Palace after she learns the full story with Shao Xin and Sang Ji. She wants to teach Shao Xin a lesson on behalf of her aunt.
The Celestial Monarch allows Sang Ji and Shao Xin to leave, but prevents Sang Ji from giving Shao Xin any title. Feng Jiu appears before them and holds Shao Xin at swordpoint, angry that she humiliated Bai Qian. Sang Ji steps between them, wanting to know who she is. Feng Jiu retorts that now that he’s no longer a prince, she has higher status than him and he has no right to stand in her way.
Si Ming appears and defuses the situation, though Feng Jiu is ready to fight more. Dong Hua steps in and Feng Jiu backs down. Dong Hua is here because he’s interested in Shao Xin. He knows that Shao Xin has accompanied Bai Qian for the past 70,000 years – has she ever heard of Si Yin?
Feng Jiu, who knows the truth about her aunt, is alarmed. Dong Hua warns Shao Xin that if she lies to him, no one can save her. Shao Xin lies and says she’s never heard of Si Yin. Feng Jiu silently wills her to maintain her resolve. Dong Hua looks thoughtfully at Feng Jiu, who looks away.
Later, Feng Jiu continues to trail Dong Hua and tries to follow him into the Taichen Palace, but the guards at the door block her way. It only makes her more curious, that there’s a place in this world she isn’t allowed to go into.
The Golden Lion Beast sees light in Bai Qian’s bamboo abode and bares her teeth, wondering what mortal would dare venture into Mount Junji. He appears inside without her noticing, but quickly runs away when he sees her fanning the fire with her Yuqing Fan. Bai Qian doesn’t notice anything.
The Golden Lion Beast mutters to himself as he strolls through a village. He remembers the Yuqing Fan from the war between the Celestial and Demon Clans millennia before, but it’s impossible that the mortal woman he just saw was the same male immortal who bore the fan then. Ye Hua finds him.
The two fight, lighting up the sky with red lightning. Bai Qian finds the red lightning strange, but falls asleep.
Ye Hua chases the Golden Lion Beast into the daylight and through a town, where a crowd runs away from them, screaming.
The Golden Lion Beast transforms into his beast form and starts spewing fire. Ye Hua has a dragon form of his own, which he transforms into in order to save a young boy. He defeats the Golden Lion and it starts to rain. The townspeople praise him as a dragon god.
Ye Hua flies into a nearby cave to rest. Bai Qian feeds a pet bird she keeps in that very cave and spots him as he rests, looking like a black snake, then brings her back home with him. Ye Hua wakes up and spots Bai Qian from the back, recognizing her from his dream, even though she was a man then.
Bai Qian talks to him and he responds, even though she can’t hear him. (What a familiar thing!) She tells him that she brought him back because it isn’t snake season so she figured he might be injured and need help recovering. She’d like for him to keep her company, but he’s free to leave if he wants – he’s just not allowed to have another owner.
Ye Hua spots the Yuqing Fan on her table and wonders why a mortal would possess it.
Su Jin tries to visit Ye Hua only to find that he’s gone to the mortal world. A day in the immortal realm is equivalent to a year in the mortal realm, so his attendant says that he should be back in half an hour.
She and the two remaining Celestial Princes attend a meeting with the Celestial Monarch, who is upset that the he’s supposed to commend the loyalty of his internal factions whose leaders who don’t attend court meetings. His sons urge him to be more rational – they can’t afford to have infighting these days with Kunlun dispersed.
The Celestial Monarch tells his sons to come up with some ideas for how to appease the different factions under his jurisdiction. He dismisses Su Jin despite her protests, saying that “women are useless here.”
Su Jin starts to walk away, but then turns back and says that she has a solution for him: make her a concubine. Not only will he be able to avoid favoring one faction over the other, but he’ll also show that he cares about his subordinate clans (given that she’s from one such clan that was wiped out). The Celestial Monarch doesn’t want to waste her time or her life, but Su Jin doubles down on her desire to be helpful. She just asks that he grant her any wish she has in the future.
Bai Qian makes a poultice to put on Ye Hua’s injuries and help him recover. Little does she know that the herb she’s using is only effective in treating wounds if combined with a berry juice. Used alone, all it will do is make his injuries worse. Ye Hua says all of this, but she can’t hear him. Bai Qian smiles to herself, thinking she’s doing a good thing. She also tries to feed him raw meat, which she thinks that snakes must like. Ye Hua acknowledges that snakes do like raw meat, but he doesn’t. Ye Hua doesn’t want to eat the raw meat, but Bai Qian alarms him by kissing him on the head. He eats to make sure she won’t do it again.
Bai Qian puts Ye Hua in a basket to go out to the market. On the way, lightning flashes in the sky. Bai Qian tries to find shelter before it rains.
An immortal in the sky prepares to make it rain. Ye Hua appears next to her and tells her that there’s no need for rain today, sparing Bai Qian from being poured on. Bai Qian checks on the snake in her basket – it’s asleep.
Ye Hua returns to the Celestial Palace, reporting back after completing his assignment. He apologizes for getting injured.
Yan Zhi strolls through the market that the Golden Lion Beast and Ye Hua damaged during their fight, following the Golden Lion Beast’s trail.
Bai Qian wanders through the market running errands, the Ye Hua dragon snake still sleeping in her basket. She strolls past a stand where a man hawks talismans that supposedly can ward off monsters. Bai Qian claims that she’s not afraid of monsters. The hawker notices her fan and follows her to the same restaurant she used to frequent in her Si Yin days. He offers to buy the fan from her, but she wants to keep it as a memento, because it was the first thing she found.
He takes the fan from her when she’s not paying attention, then makes a big show of accusing her of stealing his fan in front of the other restaurant patrons. He recognizes it as the Yuqing Fan and claims that it was passed down to him through generations. Yan Zhi arrives at the restaurant and sees the commotion.
Commentary
How can Ye Hua be in two places at once? Is the snake dragon in Bai Qian’s basket just an illusion? Or is he able to separate his metaphysical body from a physical one because the mortal and immortal realms are separate worlds? Maybe we’re just seeing these scenes out of chronological order?
I find it interesting that Su Jin requested that she be made the Celestial Monarch’s concubine. I suppose it gives her more power and possibly makes her more powerful than Bai Qian would be as Ye Hua’s wife, as long as the Celestial Monarch is in power?
I like how Ye Hua’s unheard responses to Bai Qian are an echo of how the golden lotus spirit would talk to Si Yin even though she couldn’t hear. We already know that the golden lotus spirit is Ye Hua, but it’s a good reminder that Ye Hua’s soul is something much older and with more history than his physical body.
The Drama Llama 