I started watching this, then lost interest at episode 10 and picked it up again after watching all of Eternal Love and Eternal Love of Dream. The main actress is the same so I wanted to see more of what she would be like in another role. I found the development slow and unconvincing at first, but the pacing got better after I returned to it. Also, it had some pretty wild fight scenes that I still reference to this day (the twirling bed scene, the bedroom fight scene, and the water fight scene). Apparently the water fight scene was so taxing that Ethan Juan even passed out a few times filming it.

Big thanks to Cnewsdevotee for recaps that helped me with my summary.

Total episodes: 66, about 40 min each (watched it on Viki)

Listen to the OST on Spotify (it’s close but my fav by just a little is Chuang 窗=window, because it’s got a unique sound, though Ao Hong Chen 傲红尘/傲紅塵=proud mortal world is a nice soothing second… and the instrumental Yi Ai Nan Qiu 一爱难求/一愛難求=a love hard to ask for totally makes me think of the show)

Title in Chinese is simply Fu Yao 扶摇:
Fu = to help or assist. Yao = to shake/sway/rock. So to help you sway? Or to assist you while something is shaking, kind of like to hold you steady? In this case it’s the main character’s name and I’m not sure it’s meant to mean much more than that.

Warning: possible spoilers ahead!

I rated this one an 8/10.

It’s weird to me to see Zhan Beiye’s face, which is kind of pretty, versus the voice they use for him, which is hyper masculine. That sort of mismatch was jarring to me.

Whoa, I was watching Miss Truth and researching the historical figures, which led me down a rabbit hole to discover that Zhangsun Wuji was an actual person! I did not expect this show to have any basis in reality whatsoever. I mean, I think all they did was take his name since the real person was a politician and not a ruler.

This one is on 6 lists:

1. Kissworthy
2. Magic
3. Palace Dramas
4. Alternate Identity
5. Gimme More (Leo Liang, Ethan Juan)
6. Lookalikes (Ethan Juan)

Tropes/themes in this show:

• star-crossed couple who can bring each other (or the world) danger by being together
• jealous female love rival who thinks she deserves the male lead
• main leads who need to stay away from and/or be mean to each other to protect each other
• main lead’s mother who is of low status and gets bullied (in this case technically not low status, but she’s powerless)
• side character who also falls in love with main lead, but can never be with them and ends up finding their own happiness with someone else
• main leads who are able to trust each other innately and trick their enemies by seemingly fighting and losing trust or cutting the relationship
• main lead who sacrifices him/herself to save the other
• main lead is key to the destruction of the world
• someone decides the only way to protect themselves and their loved ones is by gaining power (usually a throne)
• childhood connection between the main leads

Show Summary:

There’s a prophecy about a girl with a five-colored rock who can bring destruction to the world. A mysterious man is supposed to go on a mission to find the girl an stop this from happening. Meanwhile, Fuyao is a naughty girl who lives on a mountain. She’s part of the servants who are treated as less than human. The mountain is home to disciples of the Xuan Yuan sect and she is friendly with the senior disciple brother, Yan Jingchen. He’s protective of her, but one of the disciple sisters Pei Yuan is jealous and arrogant so she bullies Fuyao.

As a servant class girl, Fuyao isn’t supposed to be allowed to learn martial arts and magic, but Jingchen has secretly taught her as they’ve grown up together. The leader of the servants is a man she calls Uncle Zhou. Apparently they are the Xuan You division (I don’t recall this at all). He scolds her a lot but cares for her deeply and she causes him a lot of worry. I guess at some point we learn her full name is Meng Fuyao. I don’t remember if that’s when we find out more about her identity later in the show.

She wants to sneak into a Xuan Yuan sect event, but Uncle Zhou catches her and makes her go down the mountain to buy wine. While down there, she gets into some trouble, runs into a Taiyuan kingdom prince who is being hunted down. The prince, Xuan Yuanming is captured by Qi Zhen’s (the prime minister) people.

Qi Zhen wants to usurp the throne but the dying king tells him that the Xuan bloodline is critical (and his bloodline can do some sort of water manipulation magic). Qi Zhen wants to figure out how to learn this magic so he can take the throne and not be disregarded as an illegitimate ruler. Somehow kidnapping the prince is supposed to help him?

Prince Yuanming needed medical care and ended up at a mysterious healer’s place. It’s either at the Xuan Yuan sect or just down the mountain. His name is Zong Yue and he is friends with Prince. We find out the prince is fake (so who is he? you’ll see…) and needs an herb to help show fake water power. Meanwhile, Fuyao also needs the herb to help her friend (or was it a pet?) who is sick. It’s not an easy plant to get and the two end up fighting up and down a cliff and in a pond. You can see that the prince (or whoever he really is) is a cheeky guy from their interaction. He is victorious and leaves her behind.

At Xuan Yuan sect, there’s a banquet where we find out Pei Yuan is Qi Zhen’s niece. Might that explain her arrogance and haughtiness? Fuyao is there to serve and sees Prince introduced as the heir apparent of Taiyuan, but she had seen the real one and realizes it’s not him. Prince knocks water out of her hand and makes her go with him to change. He pretends to be dumb and clueless in front of Qi Zhen but he’s very clever. Fuyao fights him again lol and they both know the other is not so simple.

Jingchen is the son of the Xuan Yuan sect leader and he is betrothed to Pei Yuan. She’s delighted but he’s not. He wants to be with Fuyao and vice versa. He’s too timid to say anything and directly refuse though; her family is too powerful. He wants both worlds and expects Fuyao to be his concubine, but she is not about that.

Pei Yuan is jealous and secretly signs up Fuyao for a dangerous competition that the sect was holding, basically expecting her to die in it. Everyone seems to think Fuyao won’t make it, but she gets through (with help). Towards the end, Prince had helped her and they got some special umbrella, but it failed and Fuyao fell into some water. Uncle Zhou had given her a staff since she didn’t have a sword (or any weapon really) and it triggers something in the bottom of the lake. She is transported somewhere and water figures attack her. She learns some sort of fighting there.

Somehow in her dreams she seems to get transported to that place to get trained, but she doesn’t remember when she wakes up. Ultimately, she learns some powerful fighting skills and could have won the competition but she was too nice to do that to Jingchen, who was the finalist with her. She gets accused of witchcraft for the fighting style she used and is locked up.

Uncle Zhou comes to save her and is crushed by a gate when they leave. He knows secrets about her and how there are 5 seals on her. This water fighting activated a seal. Once they start unsealing, I guess there’s no turning back. He urges her to run away and tells her to visit all 5 kingdoms. She’s got a quest now.

A lot of things happen in the escape and Prince ultimately helps Fuyao to Healer Zong’s place. Meanwhile Qi Zhen goes to seek out some evil lady who tells him how he can master the water power. It involves sacrificing Yuanming and obtaining a very precious bell. Fake Yuanming is actually Crown Prince of Tian Quan kingdom, Zhangsun Wuji and he is prepared for all this plotting by Qi Zhen. What is his purpose of pretending to be Yuanming? Does he want the throne too?

Wuji and Fuyao both end up leaving the mountain. Wuji is being hunted by Qi Zhen’s people. Before leaving, Fuyao goes to get revenge on Pei Yuan and she faints. One of the maids takes advantage of the situation and cuts Pei Yuan’s face; of course Fuyao is later blamed.

Qi Zhen needs the bell from Tiansha kingdom and trades it for land. Tiansha’s Prince Lie, Zhan Beiye, is sent to escort the item. Along the way, he runs into Fuyao and saves her. He then thinks she stole the bell from him and keeps her with his party. She saves him from drowning and a girl rushes over to give him CPR but he wakes up just in time to run away from her. She’s Yalan Zhu and she’s obsessed with him and follows him everywhere. Fuyao makes friends with her, but Beiye pretends to like Fuyao (well he kind of actually does) to get Yalan Zhu to leave him alone.

Pei Yuan marries Jingchen, but overhears her father-in-law telling Jingchen he can use poison on her when she is no longer useful. Yikes.

Wuji takes Mr. Zong to an abandoned home, which turns out to be where Mr. Zong’s family plaques are. He doesn’t want to face the hard fact of what happened to them (they were murdered). He is a descendant of Xuan and part of the Taiyuan royal bloodline. Maybe the last one left.

Beiye finds out Qi Zhen was in on stealing the bell and in cahoots with the king of Tiansha (who I guess is his brother?).

Xiao Qi, one of Fuyao’s friends, had left the mountain with her but they got separated. She follows markings to find him and ends up in a slave market. Pei Yuan set it up to try to kill her. She offers the slaves rewards for killing Fuyao. It’s a hot mess and Beiye, Yalan Zhu, Wuji all show up. Wuji blocks Fuyao’s sword when she went to attack Pei Yuan. This was all to protect her and it also made it seem like he was on Pei Yuan’s side. But he safely gets her away and hands her over to Beiye and Yalan Zhu.

They figure out that Xiao Qi is being kept prisoner at Qi Zhen’s. Yalan Zhu knows magic to make Fuyao look like someone else and she poses as Qi Zhen’s distant relative, Yuwen Zi. Qi Zhen wants to use her as a pawn in his power play by marrying her to the king. Fuyao and Beiye find the bell but there’s a trap so they can’t remove it yet.

Meanwhile, the king dies and Qi Zhen uses dark magic to get water power. It’s important for the Taiyuan royals to have this power so they can keep flooding at bay. Now that the king is dead, someone needs to stop water flowing from the sky. Qi Zhen shows up dramatically to show off his new power and the water stops. He is gleeful, but turns around to find it was Wuji behind him actually doing it and he never got the power.

To celebrate Wuji ascending the throne, they do a hunting trip. Pei Yuan suggests hunting slaves instead. My, she’s cruel. She uses Xiao Qi as bait for Fuyao and of course Fuyao has to go save him. Fuyao and Wuji end up fighting a crazy leaf monster in the woods, it’s that evil lady who told Qi Zhen how to get water power. He pretends to be saved by her when they emerge from the woods. He has to keep up his dopey king act for Qi Zhen.

Fuyao no longer needs to stay at the manor so she stages her death with a fire. Mr. Zong happens to be there sneaking around and helps her, but gets an arrow to the chest. He needs to deliver something to Wuji in the palace and shows her a secret tunnel to do it for him. Qi Zhen is searching for whoever set the fire and runs into the king’s (Wuji) room. He’s half naked on the bed and Qi Zhen won’t let up until a woman’s voice calls out and a hand slides onto Wuji’s chest. Fuyao was hiding there and pretends to be a lover. They do quite a bit of fighting here.

Wuji is looking for some magical dragon armor and goes to a chamber where there’s a hologram of it. Fuyao’s necklace is drawn to that and it seems to be where she can unlock another seal. Wuji knows about this? He bets her if she can get his necklace off him, he will help her. So now Fuyao returns to the Qi manor as Yuwen Zi pretending to have escaped the fire.

Yun Hen is Qi Zhen’s adoptive son but he really is just a loyal dog to Qi Zhen. When he interacts with Mr. Zong, who was brought along from the mountain, there’s a possible connection to Mr. Zong’s younger brother. Yun Hen notices Mr. Zong might be injured and suspects him.

Wuji pretends to be disinterested in court and has Qi Zhen decide things. Even selecting women for his harem seemed to be a power play by the fathers. Fuyao and a bunch of ladies show up and some of them fight for where to live. She doesn’t care and just wants to get that necklace. She sneaks in as a eunuch to when he’s about to bathe but he knows right away and messes with her. This is where they end up having an epic water fight scene. It makes no sense with the water being shallow or deep as needed, but hey whatever, it’s still cool.

Yun Hen finds out about his identity as son of Prince Wen Zi, who was framed by Qi Heng even though they were old friends. We then meet Qi Heng’s daughter Qi Yun, who has been running a restaurant because she loves cooking. She gets summoned back home but she doesn’t want to go. She likes her life outside.

Fuyao gets trapped in an abandoned part of the palace where there’s a crazy lady who turns into a white fox. Wuji has a little pet hamster he sends to go find her scent. He then goes to save her and has to get injured to bargain with the crazy lady. He’s definitely into Fuyao.

Wuji has to pretend to favor one of the ladies because of her dad. Fuyao realizes she likes him, but he lies and says he doesn’t like her. She prepares to leave but his loyal servant Jiang Feng explains Wuji cares for her but can’t show it and convinces her to stay. Wuji is so happy to see she didn’t leave. He’s holding a banquet and Pei Yuan is there with Jingchen. There are these mirror of truths where Pei Yuan sees it’s actually Fuyao.

She then captures Fuyao and tries to force Jingchen to kill her. He can’t/won’t and Pei Yuan goes to do it but her maid stabs her through the back. It’s madness, Pei Yuan, Jingchen, and the maid all end up dying. Fuyao is then saved by the crazy lady, who mistakes Fuyao for her daughter (who went missing as a child and might be dead).

Qi Zhen suspects Fuyao and summons her, then forces her to stab/kill the king (Wuji) to test her loyalty. It does not look good. But then Wuji shows up and it turns out Fuyao had sensed it was not really him, which is why she stabbed him.

Qi Yun eats with Mr. Zong and Yun Hen, telling a story about a boy she knew as a child. He was allergic to an ingredient she put in the soup. She thinks he’s Mr. Zong and wanted to test him. He does not show a reaction though and leaves, only to rush to his room and suppress the rash. She likes him but Yun Hen likes her.

Wuji creates a trap for a general who is loyal to Qi Heng and makes Qi Heng suspect him. The general gets captured.

Through some plotting and counterplotting, Fuyao (still as Yuwen Zi) is going to marry the king. Qi Zhen wants her to kill Wuji on the wedding day. Qi Zhen accuses Wuji (as Yuanming) of being fake byt bringing out the real one, but Wuji uses Fuyao to show off more water technique. Turns out it’s actually Yun Hen working behind the scenes. He’s turned against Qi Zhen but Qi Zhen doesn’t know it yet.

Qi Zhen eventually escapes and meets up with Yun Hen outside the city. He learns the truth and Yun Hen is unable to kill him. In the palace, Fuyao and Wuji are pretty beat after the fight. The crazy lady comes and I think Wuji realizes she’s actually his aunt. He tries to get her to accept the reality that her daughter is dead.

Fuyao passes out and Wuji takes her back to the place with the armor hologram and opens the next seal for her before leaving. He’s got a mission and needs to move on.

Fuyao eventually comes across a plague and a girl called Fo Lian who is treating them. Fo Lian then gets sick and asks Fuyao to go meet the king of Tianquan in her place. She is actually princess of Xuanji and needed to deliver a map. Plus, she is betrothed to the prince there and she doesn’t want to let him down. In the city, Fuyao sneaks in to a manor to look for a plant and runs into Wuji. He tells her he’s the prince’s aide.

Wuji has returned home to Tianquan and his father the emperor. His mission to screw with Tiayuan was a success. That kingdom is a mess now.

They go to the forest as one point so he can show her a god in the form of a deer. He’s very difficult to find. They cook some fish and he keeps the bones as a love token.

At the palace, Fuyao accidentally discovers the empress (Wuji’s mom) meeting with Zhang Sun Jie, Prince De, the emperor’s brother. They were actually in love and torn apart. She goes to meet the emperor as Fo Lian, but then the real Fo Lian shows up. Why did she turn and frame her like that? Fuyao gets taken away. The emperor secretly shows her what happens after she leaves. Wuji gets cozy with Fo Lian as they affirm their engagement. The emperor wants Fuyao to give up.

Wuji’s older brother Zhangsun Pingrong, Prince Yi, is not a good guy and captures Fuyao after the emperor lets her go. He is about to violate her and they get into a wild fight. Wuji barges in, his brother was basically castrated, Fuyao was poisoned. The emperor won’t help, so Wuji and Mr. Zong take Fuyao to a remote village to seek an antidote.

Wuji goes back to beg his dad to help. He locks up Fo Lian in a weird basement with no doors (she fell in and can’t climb out) to reflect. He wants her to cancel the engagement and admit to working with his brother. He cleverly manipulates them until finally he gets what he wants and the marriage is annulled. She admits she wanted to ruin Fuyao’s reputation and she already knew who she was. Fo Lian “decides to focus on her charity work.” (That’s the excuse they give the world.)

Fuyao wakes up in the village and her sense of justice leads her to stand up for the people. Somehow she ends up as the leader. The village has been bothered by bandits and they invite her out. She pretends to be on their side. She and Mr. Zong suspect they work for Prince Yi, so he investigates while she distracts them. He finds they have a lot of weapons. Later at night, Fuyao is getting drunk by herself. Wuji shows up to stop her. She thought he wouldn’t come and she’s been upset with him for lying to her. It’s a pretty touching scene. She has so much emotion she basically exhausts herself from crying and passes out.

At the village, there’s a guy Tie Cheng who is interested in her and he’s cute with his little fumbling around to talk to her.

The next day, she’s mad at him and he shows up to court where she’s presiding to report on her for stealing his heart and money haha. He even brings the fish bones as proof. She runs off and Tie Cheng takes her to a cool spot in the desert. Wuji chases and they fight and he kisses her aggressively. She doesn’t believe him about the marriage until he uses his necklace to show her visions of the truth. Turns out what the emperor showed her was his vision of what he wanted her to see. Wuji was never nice to Fo Lian, much less cozy with her.

Yalan Zhu returns and we catch up on her and Zhan Beiye’s story. She had chased after him, lost him in the desert, and had a bunch of other drama. Wuji figures out she is from the Qiongye tribe, which retreated to the mountains. Her dad is their leader. He somehow was involved with the conflict that caused the rift back in the day and Yalan Zhu tries to kill him but Fuyao gets in the way. Yalan Zhu and Wuji come to a temporary truce.

Wuji gets word the emperor is ill and possibly dying, he knows it’s a trap but he still has to rush back. He decides to do the dangerous option cutting through the desert (of no return). Before he leaves, Tie Cheng is becoming Wuji’s disciple and agrees to take care of his master’s wife aka Fuyao. Lol.

Prince Yi attacks the village (more like remote city) Fuyao is at and they have to be clever in how they defend, with traps and tricks. Eventually, Xiao Qi digs a tunnel out and he and Yalan Zhu go to get reinforcements from two places. Fuyao sends Yuanbao, the hamster, to go find Wuji. He was lost in the desert after being attacked and nobody knows what happened. He had passed out after a fight and was slowly starting to petrify. It’s not known as the desert of no return for nothing.

Fuyao gets into pretty dire straits after pretending to surrender so she could kill the bad guys. The townspeople think she’s a traitor and won’t let her in the gates, so she’s stuck outside with the enemy forces. Just as she’s about to kill herself, Zhan Beiye returns and destroys the enemy. Fuyao is taken to his camp but just wants to go save Wuji. She has a vision of him in the desert but she’s too weak. Beiye has to enter her subconscious to guide her out so she’s not stuck in a coma forever. They’re in a desert together avoiding danger. Eventually the evil lady shows up and tries to get Fuyao to turn to her side, but she won’t. The evil lady decides to save her for another day and Fuyao and Beiye wake up.

Over in Tianquan kingdom, everybody assumes Wuji is dead. Prince Yi tries to find the body and finds one that he wants to burn. They claim to want to prevent others from getting infected by the petrifying poison that killed him. The emperor of Tianquan is such a wily guy. He’s been forcing the empress to take “medicine” that is really a slow poison or at least toxic. Every move he makes seems to be to mess with people and stir up trouble. He seems to like watching chaos unfold. Prince De finds out about the poison the empress has been taking and he promises to take her away now that her son is dead and there’s nothing to keep her tethered to the emperor, who had forced her to marry him.

Oh yeah, while Beiye was gone all this time, he had gone in the desert and became leader of some tribe that was his mother’s. They show up to help with some of the fighting and eventually on a journey through a forest. The forest is super dangerous, with quicksand and flesh-eating ants and illusions. Fuyao sees Wuji and he wants her forget about the world and run off with him, which cues her in that it’s not really him. It’s that evil lady again.

Fuyao passes out again and wakes up with… Wuji tending to her. This time it’s real! Now Beiye is in a coma from the evil lady’s attack and they need the bell to save him. Both Yalan Zhu and Fuyao end up going to try to steal it from Tiansha’s king (Beiye’s brother). They are caught but still escape only to find the bell was a fake.

Wuji and Fuyao go to a magical cave that is supposed to give omens for Prince Yi becoming the new crown prince. That’s how Wuji had become crown prince before, by defeating the challenge. Prince Yi is luring Wuji out to use him to get through the challenge (because he knows he can’t do it himself). Wuji shows up as expected and he and Fuyao get separated and encounter themselves. Wuji is able to figure it out and defeat his, but Fuyao needs help. Prince Yi shows up to try to push them into a portal of doom, but he almost gets sucked in.

Somehow Prince Yi’s blood contains the antidote for Fuyao’s poison (which I forgot about all this time). They save him, exit the cave and everybody except Prince Yi and his people are happy. In the cave it turns out another seal was broken, so that’s the third one so far. At this point Wuji is aware of his conflicting destiny with Fuyao – he’s supposed to destroy her so she can’t unlock evil once all her seals are broken.

Yalan Zhu uses a special power from her tribe to save Beiye because she’s so devoted to him. It makes her blind. She doesn’t want anyone to know so she avoids them, then eventually sneaks away. They ultimately track her down and fight to get her back from the evil lady (or her disciple, can’t remember if the lady was there). At this point, Beiye seems to be open to accepting Yalan Zhu into his heart instead of running from her. I think this is the only time this ploy has worked… all the other shows have the characters trying so hard but never gaining the love of their intended (usually because their heart is already with someone else… whose heart is with someone else).

All this time, Beiye’s mother has basically been held a hostage by his brother to keep him at bay. He was never interested in the throne, but is starting to see how his lack of power put those he cares about in danger. Plus he eventually gets to see her briefly and learns that he was supposed to inherit the throne. So he decides to strive to rule Tiansha. Thankfully he’s got those desert warriors on his side.

The Tiansha king is holding a competition to replace his general (who was actually killed by Fuyao and Beiye when they were sneaking in to visit Beiye’s mom). A bunch of people sign up and assassins are sent after them as the first part of the competition. Somehow Fuyao, Mr. Zong, and Qi Yun all enter and pass the first level. They have to fight each other to get a sack before the rope holding it up breaks. Fuyao is posing as Wuji’s bodyguard and eventually wins and gets the sack before it falls into fire. It’s actually Beiye’s mom. Man that king is terrible.

Qi Yun had come to try to get Mr. Zong to go cure her dad. He’s super mad and isn’t blaming her for his crimes, but also won’t be nice because of that. Yun Hen eventually makes his way there following her. Mr. Zong ends up finding where Qi Zhen is and gets knocked out. Yun Hen shows up and they both get tied up. Qi Zhen wants Yun Hen to kill his own brother, but he won’t. They fight and Qi Yun blocks an attack for Mr. Zong, hoping her dad will give up his vendetta. He doesn’t, but she had somehow transferred the dragon armor that was keeping her alive to Mr. Zong’s body and it protects him. Qi Zhen sees all his hopes fall apart and kills himself. Wuji shows up and has life-saving berry for Qi Yun. She still needs special medical care though, so he goes off with her.

Fuyao is attacked on the streets by Tai Yan, evil lady’s disciple. She is Wuji disciple sister; he had gone to train in the same place as a child or something like that.

Wuji starts getting pulled away to other realm by his master. He’s supposed to find the girl with the 5-colored rock but he pretends he’s still looking. His master punishes him with some very painful torture.

Beiye pulls together enough support through the desert fighters and with Wuji/Fuyao’s help, defeats the Tiansha soldiers to take the throne. His mother is now free and they have some quality time together discussing his future and getting married. Yalan Zhu overhears and thinks he still likes Fuyao, but she leaves before she hears him explain that he did like Fuyao and she’s great, but Yalan Zhu is the girl for him. She gets kidnapped as she’s leaving.

There’s kind of a random funny situation now with the kidnapper, who is actually Beiye’s quirky master who is vetting Yalan Zhu. She’s sassy and he’s weird and they have some interactions there are bemusing. He tries to put her through lessons to make her a “proper” wife. They bicker a lot and then Beiye shows up to express his devotion to her. They win him over and while he pretends to be cranky, he’s secretly pleased and uses his magic to restore her vision before they leave.

Fuyao and Wuji head off to Xuanji kingdom, where there seem to be issues with with the food supply and mintage. They end up guests at a wedding (I guess it was common to welcome any stranger to show up) and the family offers them a place to stay. At night, Wuji is tortured again and Fuyao finds him writhing so she uses her inner force to help him. She can’t be disturbed during the process, which is right when guards come to slaughter the family. They don’t want anyone knowing there may be a problem with the volcano, which powers the coin production.

When it’s just the bride left, Fuyao finally comes out to kill the guards. The bride has lost her mind though and bites Fuyao, screaming and asking why she didn’t come earlier. Fuyao is shaken and Wuji has to stop her from hurting herself. She wails until she passes out in the torrential rain.

Fuyao poses as Mr. Zong to go with Wuji meet the queen of Xuanji. My gosh, this pair has so many identities. The queen has been ill and Fuyao figures out it’s some sort of poison. Things in this kingdom are starting to feel familiar to her and trigger memories. This might be where she’s from.

Fo Lian is here and descending into evil. She became a disciple to evil lady, both of them using each other towards their own goals. There’s also an older sister, the eldest princess, who falls for Fuyao as Mr. Zong.

The queen has been keeping a secret assassin for years, keeping him only by threatening to never tell him what happened to his wife and daughter. She wants to keep him by her side because she loves him. She also has been hiding the fact that she doesn’t have the right power to keep the volcano going. Only one person per generation in their bloodlines gets it and it wasn’t her, so she never should have gotten the throne. She had a twin sister and the family didn’t know which of them had it, so they waited for the sister to have kids but then they had them on the same day! So it’s unclear what happened to the phoenix power.

Fo Lian frames Fuyao for killing the eldest princess. The queen’s assassin, Yu Heng, was actually her twin sisters lover and Wuji tells him that Fuyao is his daughter. The queen does some tricks to convince him otherwise and he fights Fuyao and Wuji. Fuyao bleeds onto a giant seal on the ground and it activates a reaction so a phoenix appears. Yu Heng finally believes Fuyao is his daughter, she has regained her childhood memories. Fuyao’s mom hid her to try to protect her and was killed. Fuyao was supposed to be as well, but she was dumped in a creek and found by Uncle Zhou. She grew up being able to bloom lotuses and had met Wuji as a child. She emerged from a lotus and is the harbinger of destruction once her seals are removed.

The queen is crazy and still trying to maintain control but only the true heir can activate the phoenix, so the people are convinced and recognize Fuyao as the rightful queen. The queen, her aunt, ends up dying, crazy eyes and all.

Mr. Zong has been in a remote village with Qi Yun, who has slowly recovered and learned medicine herself. She likes helping the villagers. Mr. Zong goes to attend Fuyao’s coronation and Qi Yun stays behind to wait for him. Zhen Beiye and Yalan Zhu show up too.

They receive word Prince De gathered troops to attack, so Wuji and Fuyao head over. The emperor has Wuji promise to kill Prince De himself. He always knew about the affair. Fuyao and the empress are both kidnapped and put together in a chamber where nobody can hear them. The emperor shows up and talks about his childhood with Prince De, who was always more beloved. He learned he got the throne because his father didn’t want his brother to suffer that curse. So then he did that to Wuji and now he wants him to kill his own birth father (without knowing it, of course).

The emperor wants one of the women Wuji loves to die due to the other. Between Fuyao or the empress, it would cause Wuji immense pain. That’s so sadist. He’s really wrecking Wuji in all sorts of ways. Fuyao grabs the poison and takes it. The empress tried to get it but wasn’t fast enough. She leaves and is taken wherever she wants to go. Someone saves Fuyao and it’s Uncle Zhou. He didn’t die, it was an illusion he wanted her to see. He’s actually one of the most powerful magical beings in the world. He lifts another seal from her and then transfers all his power to her.

Wuji fights and captures Prince De. The emperor orders him executed, but the empress shows up and Wuji lets them talk. Prince De is happy to die so Wuji will look like a hero. He stabs himself. The emperor is pleased when he finds out his brother is dead. Wuji finally finds out Prince De is his dad and the emperor has been plotting this all along. What a terrible thing. The emperor is dying and Wuji goes back to confront him. He has all sorts of emotions for this man who raised him, taught him, betrayed him… talk about complex emotions.

Meanwhile, Wuji still needs to bring Fuyao to the mountain where the elders are. They’re trying to suppress the evil rock that will be released when Fuyao’s sealed are all removed but they don’t have enough power. She needs to be destroyed soon. Wuji shows up to his master without Fuyao and makes him angry. Wuji asks to go through a punishment that comes with a huge reward if he can survive. Maybe he can save Fuyao this way… he gets tortured. Tai Yan (his disciple sister) tries to save him but he won’t go, he’d rather die for Fuyao.

Fuyao has been waiting for him while hidden away and goes to look for him. Her friends meet up with her to help: Xiao Qi, Mr. Zong, Zhan Beiye, and Yalan Zhu. They have to fight disciples on a suspension bridge and Xiao Qi falls off, sacrificing himself so the others can forge on. Evil lady shows up, lots of fighting and she eventually breaks the final seal (did we already have 4 already? I lost track).

The evil is unleashed from Fuyao and she goes crazy, disappearing with Wuji to where the lava rock is. He keeps trying to bring her to her senses and original Fuyao breaks through here and there before truly killing him. He gets stabbed pretty terribly though. She eventually is able to stab herself and both of them lie on the ground dying and talking. It’s a very drawn-out scene. They then pass out, or die?

Then they are running around the palace having fun and happily together. Is this an afterlife? Did they recover? We aren’t really sure, so it can be whatever you please.