I had heard that this was loosely related to the Eternal Love universe, so I put this next on my list after watching Eternal Love of Dream. I did like having the same kind of world, but I found this couple to be weak. I actually much preferred one of the secondary couples in the show instead. I saw that a bunch of reviewers loved the chemistry of the main couple, but I didn’t get it at all. Plus, the main male seemed a bit old? (Sorry dude.)
Thanks to Drama Slot’s summary that was useful in putting together my own summary.
Total episodes: 60, about 40 min each (watched it on Viki)
Listen to the OST on Spotify (my fav song is Yun Shang De Sha Gua 云上的傻瓜=fool in the clouds, which is an upbeat song that reminds me of the secondary couple that I like in the show)
Title in Chinese is Chen Xi Yuan 宸汐缘:
Chen = imperial, Xi = night tide, Yuan = fate. In this case, the chen refers to the male lead Jiu Chen (九宸) and xi refers to the female lead Ling Xi (灵汐), so this is the story of their fate together.
Source: MyDramaList
Warning: possible spoilers ahead!
What I like about the storylines in this show is that they really cover a lot of ground with interesting situations, like disabilities and possible gender dysphoria. Also what one may do when faced with the romantic pursuit of the person who (kind of) caused the death of your beloved.
This one really only made it on more lists because of one minor character, but hey:
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
- male love rival who fights to win the female lead
- main leads who need to stay away from and/or be mean to each other to protect each other
- main lead who needs to do something completely against their character to accomplish a larger goal; in the mean time they alienate their loved ones and have a falling out
- main lead who sacrifices him/herself to save the other
- main lead is key to the destruction of the world (or preventing it)
- childhood connection between the main leads
- quirky old man
Show Summary:
Ling Xi is an immortal who lives in the peach blossom forest with her dad, a doctor. She’s a free-spirited girl and her dad just wants to keep her locked up at home all the time. She sneaks out though and ends up falling into an ice cave and finding a frozen body there. She inadvertently awakens/unfreezes him; he’s the god of war, Jiu Chen, and he’s been stuck there for a very long time. Ling Xi gets into some trouble with the heavenly palace and ends up having to stay there to be Jiu Chen’s maid, so she can help him recover his health.
He is also curious how she was able to awaken him and has his aide, Shi San, keep an eye on her. At one point, he starts to turn to ice again and Ling Xi ends up saving him from completely freezing back. Jiu Chen is still suspicious of Ling Xi’s background and tries to get answers from her dad Le Bo but he won’t say anything. There’s got to be some backstory to this.
Yuan Tong, a female general, is excited to hear Jiu Chen is back and goes to visit him. She seems to have a thing for him, but her mom blames him for leading her son and others into the battle that killed them.
Source: MyDramaList
Jing Xiu, who is the main advisor for a bird tribe and has a cool tattooed head, goes to the heavenly palace for some business and bumps into Ling Xi. Then there is a confrontation with Jiu Chen and a magic needle/nail thing attacks him. It was Yuan Zheng’s (Yuan Tong’s brother) relic and it makes things seem like Jiu Chen might have been a bad guy who let his people die.
Source: MyDramaList
The ruler of the bird tribe, Ling Yue, had lost a child many years ago during a conflict and she comes across an item she had left with the baby. You know she’s going to go down that rabbit hole to try to find her child.
Source: MyDramaList
Yuan Tong has proof from her brother Yuan Zheng (in a letter) that would absolve Jiu Chen of any accusations related to his people dying, but she is advised to burn it to protect the reputation of her family. It would implicate her brother turning bad instead.
Meanwhile, Jing Xiu is found to be doing some dark magic and sacrifices. Ling Yue tries to stop him and finds out her father Yuan Du isn’t dead but has been stuck in an abyss. Or was it Jing Xiu who found it out? I can’t remember who it was a surprise to. Jing Xiu’s father had been killed by Yuan Du and Jing Xiu had been forced to sell him out as a child to survive.
So, funny little story about Shi San, she used to be a male soldier with Jiu Chen and then during the boss’s slumber, decided to become a woman. She’s some sort of fish spirit that can choose gender it seems. She starts to fancy Si Ming, the immortal of fate.
Source: MyDramaList
Le Bo shows up to try to take Ling Xi back but she won’t go. Jiu Chen is put under house arrest for destroying evidence about the war that put him in his slumber. He did it to protect the Yuan family, but others think he was trying to protect himself. He sends his younger disciple brother, Yun Feng, to the old battleground to investigate the current situation. It is creepy and oozing with bad energy.
Bao Qing is Ling Xue’s adopted daughter and has been in love with Jing Xiu, but Ling Xue doesn’t approve. Bao Qing finds out her mom is looking for her biological daughter. Ling Xue eventually learns that her daughter is alive, but doesn’t know any more than that.
Ling Xi goes back home to the peach blossom forest to try to find medicine to help with Jiu Chen’s illness. She’s pretty dedicated to trying to help him and puts herself at risk (and of course he comes to save her).
Qing Yao, Le Bo’s disciple and Ling Xi’s older disciple sister, is a no-nonsense kind of lady who is dedicated to her craft of medicine. Ling Xi goes to try to restore the evidence Liu Chen burned and Yuan Tong finds out. When she confronts Ling Xi, they fight and Ling Xi gets pushed into a pond that is very dangerous for immortals. Qing Yao finds her and saves her.
Qing Yao takes the evidence and eventually shows everyone, including madam Yuan, who has been so bitter towards Jiu Chen all this time. She is shocked to learn the truth. Man I hate when people are like her, feeling so self-righteous judging others when they don’t have a clue what the truth is. But then again, from a mother’s perspective, what else was she to believe? With the truth out, Yuan Tong gets her position stripped and she has to start at the bottom again.
Yun Feng starts to like Qing Yao but she is cold and disinterested. She apparently had a husband before, or someone she loved.
Jiu Chen takes on punishment on behalf of his soldiers who had died, and he is gravely injured. Yu Li, the medicine lord’s daughter, also fancies Jiu Chen and shows up with some things to help in his recovery. She is jealous of Ling Xi who gets to stay with him.
There’s a bad guy Zhong Hao who wants to release the demon king that was sealed when Jiu Chen last fought. Somehow Ling Xi has the ability to help unlock the seal.
Ling Xue goes to visit Le Bo because her late husband, Mo Huan, was his disciple brother. She wants to find out more about where her daughter might be.
Qin Yuan, evil Zhong Hao’s adoptive son, goes seeking revenge thinking his father was killed by Jing Xiu. But Zhong Hao is a demon now and Qin Yuan needs to get him a magical cauldron. He goes asking Jiu Chen for it but Jiu Chen doesn’t have it, it’s with Ling Xi.
Yuan Tong starts practicing dark magic. Oh boy, that can’t be good.
Yun Feng has been pursuing Qing Yao and she angrily tells him about a mortal man that he inadvertently caused the death of a very long time ago. He is confused as to why she cares so much about that story and situation. Only later did he find out that that man was Qing Yao’s husband in the mortal realm when she had visited to help heal people.
Jiu Chen takes Ling Xi to the mortal realm and she acquires a cute immortal pet along the way. Somehow she and Bao Qing get into a fight and Ling Xi ends up at Jing Xiu’s. Jiu Chen then tests his theory that Ling Xi has some sort of special power or connection to the demon lord and confirms his suspicions. It flashes back to when he fought the demon lord and saved a little baby.
Jiu Chen takes Ling Xi back home to her dad and Le Bo admits he saved Ling Xi from the aftermath of the battle. Ling Xi doesn’t want to leave Jiu Chen and even kisses him when he leaves, but he has to keep her at a distance to protect her.
Zhong Hao started capturing girls who were the right age to be the one with the powers he wants. He doesn’t know it’s Ling Xi of course.
At a banquet, Ling Xi sneaks in nearby and happens upon a sad beast they had captured. She frees it and fights with Zhong Hao. The beast eventually is killed and Jiu Chen shows up to take Ling Xi to his secret hideout, which might be at the south pole. Yuan Tong follows and finds out where she’s hiding, then exposes her.
Ling Xi is tested for demonic energy and shows none. But now Zhong Hao knows it’s Ling Xi he’s been looking for and he tells Qin Yuan. Qin Yuan captures her and Jiu Chen has to go rescue her. By then, Yuan Tong had tattled on Ling Xi and gets her in trouble again. This time Ling Xi is sentenced to death. Jiu Chen wants to retire from his position and keep watch over her at his hideout, never to be seen in the world or pose a risk again, but they won’t let him.
Qing Yao makes a concoction to make everybody pass out and she saves Ling Xi from execution. Yuan Tong kills all the sleeping guards to frame Qing Yao, how evil!! On the run, Le Bo protects Ling Xi with his life and gets killed by Yuan Tong. Ling Xi has a powerful energy activated and wards off Yuan Tong. She then collapses and gets drawn to the demon king’s evil energy, but Jiu Chen stops her.
Yuan Tong gets imprisoned at a special tower that houses a lot of demons and she figures out a way to manipulate others so that she can look like a hero. She is reinstated in the army, that cunning woman.
Ling Xi gets sent to the mortal world to go through a trial, I think it’s supposed to help cleanse her soul of any demonic energy. She is born into a family deaf and named Lin Mo now. She had given her hearing to Jiu Chen at some point when he was in danger, so that continued through into her mortal version. She has a younger sister Lin Zhan who bullies her, but she’s still got a sweet personality and a very close relationship with her mortal father, who is also a physician. Lin Mo is very much into medicine growing up.
Yun Feng follows Qing Yao to the mortal realm and shows her the reincarnation of her husband. He is happily married with a pregnant wife now, which is bittersweet for Qing Yao.
Lin Mo is supposed to get engaged to a family friend’s son, Song Ziyu, but Lin Zhan is jealous because she wants to marry him. But then the crown prince falls ill and somehow all girls born on a certain date are considered inauspicious and related to causing him to get sick, so guards start hunting down all these girls. Of course Lin Mo is one of them, but her father Lin Shaohai hides her and explains how he had actually been adopted by him so that wasn’t her real birthday. His wife faked a pregnancy, or had a miscarriage I think.
Shaohai has to choose between his beloved daughter or the rest of his family, so he reluctantly pushes Lin Mo to float in a river and eventually drown. She doesn’t and returns home to learn the truth. She decides it’s time for her to go live her own life. She runs into Jing Xiu along the way and is kind to him. Jiu Chen sets up a place for Lin Mo to stay and has Si Ming secretly guide her there. He plants a tree there that will heal her senses when she eats its fruit.
Jing Xiu then shows up Lin Mo’s new place with injuries and stays to recuperate. He was blinded and has nails in his body to suppress his powers. They fall into a rhythm and eventually the tree bears peaches, but Lin Mo doesn’t eat them and makes wine to sell instead. Lin Mo then becomes an apprentice with Sun doctor, who had helped treat Jing Xiu. Eventually, Lin Mo is able to help Jing Xiu remove the nails in his body, but that is something only someone from the phoenix tribe is supposed to be able to do.
Yuan Tong is shunned by pretty much all of the heavenly clan and nobody trusts her. The only person supporting her is Du Yu, who she was engaged to.
Ling Yue, the leader of the bird tribe, is being controlled by Zhong Hao now. I think he has her drugged? Her daughter Bao Qing has been captured and is being kept to use as bait or leverage later.
Jing Xiu drinks the peach wine and regains his eyesight. He realizes this woman he fell in love with is Ling Xi. Jiu Chen goes to visit and the two guys secretly battle it out while Lin Mo remains pretty clueless haha. But then they both try to claim her and she just wants to be left alone. Jiu Chen ends up having to fight a beast later and Lin Mo helps treat him. He’s a lot weaker these days because he had a sacrifice a stone that was keeping him alive to try to protect Ling Xi and give her a chance to be demon-free.
Yu Li and Yun Feng get mistakenly engaged when the elders think they like each other, but Yu Li was just trying to find out where Jiu Chen was. Bao Qing is let out by Qin Yuan, since he likes her and doesn’t want her to die.
There are some mortals wandering around and one of them, Zhu Zizai, sees Jiu Chen and Jing Xiu fighting. He immediately wants to become their disciple lol. He eventually comes across injured Jiu Chen who had to fight a beast and because he saved the guy, he and his disciple are taken in as a disciples (reluctantly). They are random little comedic relief guys.
Yun Feng has been proving himself worthy by fighting all sorts of bad creatures. Qing Yao finds out and she softens towards him, eventually realizing she likes him. When he gets badly injured once, he gets her to confess haha, but of course she gets mad when she finds out he was exaggerating his injuries.
Jing Xiu finds out Bao Qing was gravely injured while escaping and goes to heal her. He needs some special pill.
To protect Lin Mo, Jiu Chen has to use magic powers and it raises suspicions. He tries to help her remember him and says some sweet things and kisses her. She has mistaken him for Song Ziyu, her fiance, this whole time. She learns from the Song family that he is not the right person and questions his true identity. She doesn’t believe he’s an immortal and they have such a long history together, so he makes up a new story.
Yun Feng and Qing Yao finally got together, but then her old flame returned. He had been stuck reincarnating in the mortal world, unable to get through his love trial after his relationship with Qing Yao. Si Ming gives him a boost and he is finally able to break free and return to his former life as an immortal himself. Now that he’s back, he and Qing Yao catch up and Yun Feng is jealous. One day while discussing it, she’s teasing him and he gets all flustered, then she gives him a kiss on the cheek to show him where she stands and he’s stunned haha.
Source: MyDramaList
Lin Mo is supposed to undergo one final trial that would allow her to return to the immortal realm, but Jiu Chen has a tough time leaving her as he should. Jing Xiu is worried about Lin Mo and goes to take her from Jiu Chen. Jiu Chen has to fight off bad guy Zhong Hao, which gives Jing Xiu a chance to leave with Lin Mo.
The demon energy that was sealed back in the last epic battle tries to recruit Yuan Tong but she refuses even though she was drawn to him. She is given defective pills by Qing Yao and eventually notices, so she frames Qing Yao for soldiers’ deaths by giving them the pills and sending them towards the demon. She then looks like the hero emerging again at the end… wow, her conniving really is impressive.
Qing Yao gets in trouble but then Yun Feng pleads for her and she is let off easy while he is turned into a statue to reflect frozen for 1,000 years. Qing Yao is heartbroken and goes to visit Yun Feng, making sure his statue form is cared for.
Qin Yuan decides to rebel and lets Ling Yue go so she can open the abyss. To prevent herself from being misused for evil purposes, she jumps in and finds her father Yuan Du at the bottom. They have some grudges because he killed a bunch of her loved ones when he was against her relationship with Mo Huan. Now they team up for the same cause, to prevent the abyss from getting opened.
Lin Mo is found and Yuan Tong wants to kill her, but the demon lord needs Lin Mo to break free of his seal. When Jiu Chen shows up, Lin Mo is sad that he seems to love Ling Xi and not her (though they are the same person so are they really that different?), so she gives up the pearl that was keeping her alive and dissipates.
Back as an up-leveled immortal, Ling Xi gets caught up on what happened. She has been cleansed of the demonic aura and has her true form as a phoenix. She finds out about her mother and goes to see her. Jing Xiu has been keeping Ling Yue in a coma. He won’t kill her since she’s Ling Xi’s mom. Ling Xi and Qing Yao find something wrong with the medicine, so Qing Yao works on her own concoction. Ling Yue eventually wakes up but Jing Xiu secretly kills her when Ling Xi goes to get help.
Yuan Tong had the demon lord’s spirit take refuge in her when Lin Mo died and then she gets banned after they find out how she lured soldiers to their death. Now she has to find the next host for him.
After a complex situation with lots of people getting killed and Jing Xiu’s secret almost coming out, but then framing a maid, the truth eventually surfaces. He runs off and Yuan Tong convinces him to take on the demon lord work. She then goes to the abyss and when they sense the disturbance, Jiu Chen goes to fight. He would get trapped there so he gets Yun Feng released and he’s supposed to pretend to be Jiu Chen locked up in his room drinking. He wants Ling Xi to give up on him since he’s never coming back.
Ling Xi was getting ready to get married to him after they finally got a blessing from his master and had one happy night. Instead, she is now told he claims to be unfit to be a husband. She eventually figures out the man behind the screen is not Jiu Chen and forces Yun Feng out to tell the truth. Ling Xi jumps into the abyss to be with Jiu Chen forever.
Jing Xiu goes too and is forced through the portal. Jiu Chen goes in after him and tells Ling Xi she must seal it after him. He promises to find a way back to her.
300 years later, Ling Xi has a daughter and they are at Jiu Chen’s retreat at the pole. Shi San had turned from human back into a fish to recover from an injury and they are waiting for her to regain human form. She has no memories when she’s back. At the retreat, mother and daughter are at the entrance when Jiu Chen re-emerges. And thus the family is reunited (but no explanation??).
