I wanted to see more of Zhang Bin Bin (after noticing him in Eternal Love) and this pairing with Dilraba seemed interesting. I felt the two of them could be a compelling couple.

Big thanks to Baidu for their summary to help me recall what happened.

Total episodes: 48, about 40 min each (watched it on Viki)

Listen to the OST on Spotify (the songs aren’t available in the US, so try YouTube music; however, that one has more of the instrumentals, so I made my own playlist) — my fav song is Qing Wei Yang 情未央=”Love Hasn’t Ended“

Title in Chinese is Qin Shi Li Ren Ming Yue Xin 秦时丽人明月心:
Qin is the name of the dynasty (and my surname!), Shi is time, Li is beautiful, Ren is person, Ming is bright or understand, Yue is moon, Xin is heart. So, beautiful person of the Qin era understands the moon’s heart? Or has a clear moon heart? In this case, the beautiful refers to the FL Gongsun Li as that is her given name.

Warning: possible spoilers ahead!

I rated this an 8/10.

It was well done with great costumes, but what a painful storyline.

Ying Zheng is a real historical figure and the man who established the Qin dynasty. This is a fictional story revolving around true historical events and a lot of actual people and events are woven in. Our female lead Gongsun Li is made up though, and no historical records show Ying Zheng had a relationship with a woman like her. This is an interesting show to contrast with Legend of Haolan, which I watched much later and focuses on the life of Ying Zheng’s mother. The shows definitely portrayed her very differently while still keeping to certain historical facts.

This one made it on 8 lists:

1. Kissworthy
2. Palace Dramas
3. A Lifetime Apart
4. Love Again
5. Other Dynasties
6. Gimme More (Dilraba Dilmurat, Vin Zhang, Li Tai)
7. Lookalikes (Dilraba, Vin)
8. Gorgeous (Dilraba)

Tropes/themes in this show:

• jealous female love rival who thinks she deserves the male lead
• male love rival who fights to win the female lead
• main lead’s mother who is of low status and gets bullied
• side character who also falls in love with main lead, but can never be with them and ends up accepting it
• 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
• arranged marriage where they are resistant at first, then fall in love
• arranged marriage that turns out to be with the person they fell in love with in a different context
• main lead is key to the destruction of the world (or preventing it)
• 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
• someone schemes to catch main lead in compromising situation
• quirky old man

Show Summary:

This was back before I started jotting notes while watching shows, so the summary will be quite patchy. I also didn’t pay much attention to a lot of the political happenings and cared more about the relationships.

Ep1 Ying Zheng is a powerful man and leader, king of Qin (which is currently a kingdom and not yet an empire). He has a very tenuous relationship with his mother, who seeks pleasure in a man called Lao Ai. Man, I totally forgot we were introduced to her so early on and thought it was towards the end of the show. Gongsun Yu is a prominent man of another state and he has 3 disciples: his granddaughter Gongsun Li, younger guy Jing Ke, and older guy Han Shen. It’s a turbulent time and grandpa gets killed. Not sure when we get introduced to Han Shen, but right now it’s just Li and Jing Ke. Ying Zheng is getting coronated and recalls being saved by a boy and a girl in his childhood. He grew up in a really dangerous situation and really distrusts people, but he yearns for that girl who saved him. She turns out to be Gongsun Li, but of course he doesn’t know that yet.

Ep2 We learn about Ying Zheng’s childhood, where he grew up as a hostage prince in another kingdom. He was bullied and nearly killed. He managed to return and took the throne at 13, but his mom and the chancellor Lu Buwei (who seems to have a thing for his mom) were in control. Now he has gained control bit by bit and overthrown those in power to truly reign. Ying Zheng goes out posing as a merchant and happens to run into Li and Jing Ke. Jing Ke gets drunk and clings to Li, the first inkling of feelings. Drunk Ying Zheng ends up in Li’s bed haha and almost slips that he’s a king. He thinks she’s a man — really? Later she ends up helping him fight some attackers and gets injured. In getting her aid, he learns she’s a woman haha. Come on it’s not believable at all, she’s clearly a woman. But anyways. Meanwhile, Jing Ke had gotten chased and saved by Lu Goujian, a swords master that the disciples and grandpa had tried to learn from earlier.

Ep3 Ying Zheng sees Li’s necklace and realizes she’s the girl he’s been trying to find. She ends up leaving in a whole situation that is a test for Ying Zheng or something. There’s a bunch of political stuff happening and power vying that I mostly don’t care to summarize, but one big thing is that Ying Zheng’s brother Cheng Jiao learns some details about his mother’s death that lead him to rebel against Ying Zheng.

Ep4 The brothers are estranged now and Ying Zheng is upset. He goes to talk to his confidante Yan Dan, the crown prince of another state who is a hostage there. The inverse of Ying Zheng. Jing Ke and Li encounter Ge Lan, another swordsman’s daughter and Jing Ke begs to learn from him. Ying Zheng has 2 concubines, Chu and Min Dai. Chu vies for attention while Min Dai is reserved. Jing Ke and Li stay with Ge Lan and dad Ge Nie and the girls become sworn sisters. I’m confused by the name because they prounounce it Ge, but when I see translations, it says Gai. I went with Ge since that’s how they say it in the show.

Ep5 Ying Zheng wants to find Gongsun Li and puts wanted posters all around the kingdom. Jing Ke gets badly injured as they get chased. Li drags him to try to get help and runs into Tian Guang, who Goujian had told them could be trusted. Li is relieved and they take him off to treat him but find he is badly poisoned.

Ep6 Gongsun Li rushes to the palace to find the king and get the antidote. She finds out he’s the merchant she met before. He wants her and she decides it’s the only way to save Jing Ke. She agrees to return in 3 months and not tell anyone about the agreement. She stays with her love Jing Ke as he gets better and then he has an opportunity to meet someone important but she finds an excuse not to go.

Ep7 The duo gets a chance to practice swords together and have some romantic moments. They go hide in a cave when it starts to rain and Li knows her time is running out, so she hugs him and asks him if he likes her. He expresses his devotion and they end up sleeping together. He leaves not knowing it’s the last time they’ll be together. Li goes to turn herself in to be taken to the palace as promised. She then learns she is pregnant. Ying Zheng is angry and almost tries to terminate the pregnancy, but Li threatens herself and he decides to take the child as his own and Jing Ke will never know. He likes her resistance and sassiness. A bit of a masochist? Jing Ke returns and learns what Li did to save him. He rushes off to find her.

Ep8 Li threatens her life to keep Ying Zheng from terminating her pregnancy, so he decides to keep it and nobody will ever know it wasn’t his child. He makes her swear she will never leave the palace so her child can live. Li has a duel with a general, Meng Wu, and beats him. Jing Ke tries to sneak into the palace and is caught and tortured.

Ep9 Chu has been plotting for power and grand queen dowager (Ying Zheng’s grandma) wants to make her queen. Ying Zheng refuses, saying it’s not time. Li gets poisoned by medicine that could cause a miscarriage. Of course Chu was behind it, making a minor consort do it for her. Li learns from Min Dai, who grew up with Ying Zheng, that she is just there for her country. Big disciple brother Han Shen is also in love with Li and wants to rescue her from the palace. He becomes a guard and has to find a way to the harem where the women are kept.

Ep10 Ying Zheng’s mom has gone crazy after getting locked up and having her young sons killed. She ends up sneaking into Li’s room and attacking her, causing a ruckus. Jing Ke is now part of a labor camp and is saved by Tian Guang. Ying Zheng is relieved that mom and fetus are ok and tries to get her to eat but she refuses, so he feeds her with his mouth to get her to eat. Jing Ke is completely falling apart as he misses Li and just drinks all day. He is targeted and saved by Ge Lan and Ge Nie.

Ep11 Li goes into labor and has a son. She names him Tianming and Ying Zheng won’t allow her to see him. He’s always going to use the kid as leverage huh? Han Shen sneaks in to Li’s room and scares her before she knows it’s him. He finds out who the real father is and doesn’t try to harm the baby. Another king, Zhao Dan, comes to visit. Grand queen dowager gives Li a task that’s really a punishment. Ying Zheng rushes over when he finds out and whisks her away.

Ep12 Ying Zheng is sad about Li’s injury. He’s very protective of her and promotes her. Chu is furious. Li and Jing Ke both separately practice the double swordsmanship that they had done together, which is sort of like a couple’s dance. Ying Zheng gets jealous but says he won’t touch her until she’s willing. He’s convinced she will. Yan Dan gets word from Zhao Gao of that kingdom that they are planning on attacking his home country of Yan. Plans backfire and Zhao Dan ends up dying. Han Shen tries to assassinate Ying Zheng but he’s prepared and Han Shen gets stabbed instead. Tianming goes missing.

Ep13 Chu was behind this plot against the baby. Han Shen was almost caught as the assassin. He goes to see Li again after he learns about the missing child. Chu is given the eldest son Fusu to raise and Li explains to her how she can’t have her own child, or she might get killed in the power struggle. Han Shen overhears some weird stuff happening in a cold palace and reports it to Ying Zheng since Tianming might be there. They find the kid with crazy queen dowager, who didn’t know who the kid was.

Ep14 Han Shen is almost exposed but Li helps get him out of trouble. People want Lu Buwei to become chancellor but he keeps turning them down. He instead meets with Ying Zheng and claims he isn’t trying to take over or become an official in Chu state. But then news comes he got a post in Chu and Ying Zheng is furious. Li plots with Han Shen to make an escape and dresses as a soldier.

Ep15 Li disappears and Chu is pleased. Ge Lan has been looking for Jing Ke and finally finds him to tell him Han Shen is bringing Li. She doesn’t want Jing Ke to know about his child. They meet and they’re both very emotional. Han Shen and Ge Lan are both happy and sad since they each love one of the couple and don’t get to be with them but they’re glad the couple gets to be happy together again. Ying Zheng goes searching for Li and hears that Buwei killed himself. Li is having a great time with her friends.

Ep16 Li’s maid Qing’er has been tortured by Zhao Gao and Min Dai comes to save her. Li knows she has to return to the palace and plans on getting Ge Lan be with Jing Ke. She is starting to feel compassion for Ying Zheng and doesn’t think he’s completely a tyrant anymore. She tells Jing Ke about her son but claims he’s Ying Zheng’s. Jing Ke is livid. Li returns to the palace alone and tells Han Shen not to go back.

Ep17 The disciple brothers fight because Han Shen defends Li. Ge Lan is really sad about this break in relations. When Li gets back, Ying Zheng locks her up and Li sees how badly her maid was beaten. The crooked eunuch Zhao Gao wanted to torture Li but Ying Zheng showed up in time to stop him and later, some servants sent by grand queen dowager.

Ep18 Li got let out and then snuck back to check on Han Shen. They are caught by Ying Zheng and Li confesses that he is her disciple brother. They set up a fight between them and Meng Wu. When Li joins to fight with Han Shen, it becomes clear they know how to fight together in a coordinated effort. Ying Zheng sets up a deal with Han Shen to stay and protect Li. Jing Ke has been drinking himself into a stupor again and Ge Nie gives him a wakeup call to pull himself together. He finally starts to think about what he’s going to do with his life.

Ep19 Jing Ke decides to go advance his swordsmanship and Ge Lan tags along. Ying Zheng wants to sleep with Li and he forcefully kisses her only to get bitten. He says he’ll come every day until she’s willing. He uses the baby Tianming as leverage to keep Li from doing anything crazy like hurting herself. Grand queen dowager sets up a trap at her birthday banquet and has Li perform a sword dance but plants assassins. It looks like she is about to attack Ying Zheng but she ends up saving him from a sneak attack and then gets stabbed.

Ep20 There’s a lot of political stirrings with Chu nation, which grand queen dowager and Chu consort are from. I wasn’t that interested in these developments so I didn’t pay much attention. Meanwhile, Jing Ke and Ge Lan came across Gao Jianli, who Jing Ke had competed with before.

Ep21 Ying Zheng decides to go to battle and brings Li with him. Jing Ke and Ge Lan get attacked by some people who want swords secrets and they end up falling into a secret chamber underground. Ying Zheng convinces Li to stay in his tent, but she refuses to share the bed.

Ep22 Li starts to see more of Ying Zheng’s caring side and she might be opening up to him. Jing Ke finds out he needs to master a secret sword technique to get them out of that cave. Ying Zheng wants a scholar Han Fei to defect to his country. The guy stutters but is very well-educated. Li and Ying Zheng get flirtatious as he chases her around. He decides to sleep right on the steps in her room.

Ep23 The ministers argue over how to handle the war situation. Jing Ke finally masters the sword technique to get them out. Ge Lan is basically starving to death. Ying Zheng sneaks in on Li complaining about him haha. He likes it and hugs her, then kisses her again. She resists, but calms down pretty quickly and seems to like it for the first time. He carries her off to bed and they wake up snuggling. He can be gentle. Jing Ke got them out of the cave and then has to fight those people again. Li gets a chance to know Yan Dan, who talks about the pains of being a hostage prince.

Ep24 Yan Dan and Ying Zheng’s relationship is strained. Ying Zheng has some nice time with Li and kisses her after saying he wants to know everything about her. Ying Zheng tries to set up Han Shen with Li’s maid Qing’er but they aren’t interested. Poor Han Fei gets framed by Chu people. Li decides she needs to help him because she believes he isn’t sinister like that. Li gets kidnapped.

Ep25 Ge Lan’s injury needed help so Jing Ke finds Tian Guang. Han Shen also ends up there looking for help to find Li. The brothers argue again and Han Shen can’t tell Jing Ke the truth about the child, or else he’d do something stupid to risk his life. They end up working together to fight some bad guys and try to find Li. Jing Ke has some sick moves now. He finds Li and saves her. They end up in a cave again and their relationship will never be the same. Sad.

Ep26 Han Fei is convinced to take poison, thinking he has no way out. Ying Zheng finds Li and they rush back but it’s too late to save him. I feel so bad for this guy, who was so good and nice and got used. Ying Zheng and Li set up a trial to expose Chu consort and corrupt official Li Si, who had gotten Han Fei to kill himself.

Ep27 Li suspects there’s someone else behind the plot. Turns out Min Dai was the true culprit, but why? Turns out Buwei didn’t kill himself and it was staged. He’s secretly planning for power.

Ep28 Tian Guang turns out to be Yan Dan’s advisor. He asks Jing Ke to help him rescue Yan Dan. Li has been helping out Yan Dan too. They make it look like assassins came and sneak Yan Dan out. Then they use a funeral procession to try to sneak out of the country.

Ep29 Jing Ke ends up making some fancy moves to fight the guards and get them to let the people out. Han Shen secretly helps too. Ying Zheng brings Tianming back to the palace and he’s already a few years old. Chu consort finds out that a woman gifted to Han Fei is pregnant and wants to get rid of the child. She then makes a physician claim she is pregnant.

Ep30 Li went to visit queen dowager and happened to learn about Min Dai’s past, which made her suspect Min Dai might be behind the plot. Chu was going to pretend the baby was hers but then the woman dies.

Ep31 Chu pretends to have a miscarriage. Li is starting to see some humanity in Ying Zheng despite his ruthlessness. After all, he’s in a tough position and had a very challenging childhood and life. He talks about his regrets with his brother Chengjiao. Li sends Han Shen off on a secret mission. He goes to find Jing Ke and Yan Dan.

Ep32 Li confronts Min Dai about the plot but then Min Dai makes it look like Li attacked her. Li exposes all of Min Dai’s crimes but then they turn it on her and make Ying Zheng jealous of the time that Li was kidnapped and alone with Jing Ke. He finds out Li helped Yan Dan escape and he thinks she did it for Jing Ke. He lets her get beaten in prison.

Ep33 Yan Dan gets kidnapped and Han Shen helps a bunch of his followers to try to recover him. Ying Zheng misses Li but doesn’t know what to do because he’s still upset. Jing Ke ends up saving Yan Dan.

Ep34 Ah, Han Shen is looking for Chengjiao to see if he wants to return home. Li remembers that night as a child when they met Ying Zheng. I think she still doesn’t know who he is. But Ying Zheng overhears and now he’s all emotional and confused. Jing Ke gets drunk after hearing about how carefully Li planned things for Ying Zheng to possibly reunite with his brother. Ge Lan helps him out, he cries in her arms, and they wake up together. Han Shen finds Chengjiao with a wife and child.

Ep35 Han Shen returns to find Li beaten in prison and goes to save her. He stands up to Ying Zheng to get her out of there. He explains he went to find Chengjiao and brings out the child. Chengjiao had decided he was too ashamed to return, but he sends his son. Ying Zheng is really emotional about it all. Li ends up passing out and Han Shen carries her off, telling Ying Zheng he’s not worthy of her. Yan Dan returns home and his dad is happy but things are akward. Ying Zheng wants to see Li and goes to find her, but Han Shen fights him.

Ep36 Li can’t help but protect Ying Zheng. Ying Zheng agrees not to come anymore and to bring Tianming the next day. He feels guilty and maybe a bit defeated. Yan Dan gifts Jing Ke a nice home. Omg I don’t think I’ve seen him smile so genuinely before. Li finds out Ying Zheng went missing and goes to help.

Ep37 Li finds Ying Zheng in the woods and saves him. They go to hide in a cave overnight and he’s so relieved to see her. They then pose as a normal couple as they wait for the backup to get them. A nice lady takes them in and then Ying Zheng learns that Li is pregnant. She is learning to love him. The lady tells the story of how her whole family was killed by Ying Zheng’s troops. The next day, the troops attack the city and poor lady is stunned to find the man is the king she hated so much. She yells at him and goes to attack, but Meng Wu kills her. Ying Zheng gets angry at him for killing her. Auntie tells Li she shouldn’t stay with a tyrant like Ying Zheng.

Ep38 Ying Zheng sets up a tomb for Han Fei in his home country. Li returns to the palace. Her getup reminds me of Japanese wear. Han Shen decides to leave. Jing Ke gets recruited in an assassination plot. Min Dai finds out about Li’s pregnancy and sneaks her medicine to cause a miscarriage. Li confronts her and Min Dai finally loses her cool and reveals her true colors.

Ep39 Min Dai causes a rift between Li and Ying Zheng by making him jealous of Jing Ke again. Li goes to visit queen dowager, who is ill and wants to go home to her state of Zhao. Li convinces Ying Zheng to let her take mom home. Buwei gets a letter to queen dowager and the woman insists on seeing him.

Ep40 Li helps queen dowager meet Buwei. Ying Zheng is his son! He kidnaps her. Zhao king is forced to surrender. Ying Zheng confronts Buwei. When did he learn that Buwei is his dad? Ying Zheng doesn’t trust Buwei and ends up killing him. Min Dai is angry at the Zhao king after everything she did for him and her country. She kills herself after losing it. Ying Zheng kills a bunch of people after he recalls his childhood there being bullied. He then disappears again.

Ep41 Li finds Ying Zheng and finds out he was the kid she saved. Ying Zheng gets back in time before his mom dies. Jing Ke goes to get a special sword made for his plan. Ge Lan finds out and she’s devastated. Li goes to lead troops to protect Ying Zheng and he refuses to leave.

Ep42 The assassination needs a sacrifice and the general agrees to die so his head can be presented to Ying Zheng. Ying Zheng will not budge until Li returns and when she finally does, he runs to her. Han Shen tries to convince Jing Ke not to go through with it and finally tells him that Tianming is his child. But it’s too late, the general is already dead and Jing Ke is going to present his head.

Ep43 Ying Zheng wants to make Tianming the crown prince. Tian Guang decides that he needs to die as part of the plot. Chu got her position restored but then gets in trouble for helping with passing a message.

Ep44 Chu gets in trouble for the plot and kills herself. Ying Zheng knows that it wasn’t hurt fault but he knows someone needs to take the blame. Yan Dan sends off Jing Ke on the mission.

Ep45 Han Shen secretly meets with Li and tells her about the assassination plan. He wants to get them out of the palace. Li finds out Ying Zheng still can’t fully accept Tianming as his child. He believes he needs to get rid of Jing Ke. Li takes Tianming out of the palace to meet with Han Shen. When soldiers come to capture them, Li tells her son who his real father is. She sends him off with Han Shen as she distracts the troops.

Ep46 Dang, Li has been in the palace for 10 years now. She admits to Ying Zheng exactly what she did to protect her son. Jing Ke and co arrive in the city and get ready. Jing Ke and Li arrange to meet privately. He hugs her after years apart.

Ep47 Li tries one last time to convince Jing Ke to back down, but he’s too far in. Han Shen has Tianming hide and he fights to the death. Ge Nie and Ge Lan come to help. It’s too late for Han Shen but they save Tianming. Aw man, Han Shen was my fav! Ying Zheng knows about the plot and wants to face Jing Ke head on. Li wants Jing Ke to miss the event and has her maid give a sedative to him.

Ep48 Jing Ke arrives as the envoy. Li was being held under house arrest and fights her way past dozens of guards. Turns out she got a sedative. Jing Ke confronts Ying Zheng to make him jealous. Jing Ke’s powers are limited because he got poisoned. The two duel it out and Jing Ke is badly injured but makes a comeback. Ying Zheng’s guard Li Zhong protects him and then Ying Zheng uses him as a shield, then straight up tosses him aside! Ouch. He then kills Jing Ke this time. Jing Ke’s last sight is a blurry view of Li rushing in. They carry his body out and he dies in front of her. She then confronts Ying Zheng and finds out he never trusted her, but he says he loves her. She says she’ll finish the job Jing Ke couldn’t and now they run at each other with swords. Just as she’s getting close, she turns her sword around so just the scabbard touches him. His shock as he watches it happen but his momentum stabs her… and he realizes she never meant to hurt him. He asks why and she says she wanted him to feel what it’s like to lose your most loved. This way he could empathize with his people. She wants him to be a good ruler. Well, now he managed to kill both the buddies who saved him. Was it worth it?

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.

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:

1. Magic
2. Palace Dramas
3. Gimme More (Yuan Hao)
4. Lookalikes (Yuan Hao)
5. Gorgeous (Zhang Zhi Xi)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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??).

Firstly, I wanted to continue the storyline and see what could happen with Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu from Eternal Love. Secondly, the leads are such beautiful people I wanted to watch more of them. So, this was up next for me immediately after watching Eternal Love.

Big thanks to DramaSlot for a thorough post that I referenced to help me with my summary.

Total episodes: 56, about 40 min each (watched it on Viki)

Listen to the OST on Spotify (my fav song is Yuan Zi Shu 缘字书 / 緣字書=book of fate’s word)

Title in Chinese is San Sheng San Shi Zhen Shang Shu 三生三世枕上书:
San = three, sheng = life/lives, san = three again, shi = world, zhen = pillow, shang = on top, shu = book. So three lives, three worlds, book on the pillow. I really don’t understand the pillow reference here, maybe it makes more sense with the novel.

Warning: possible spoilers ahead!

I rated this one a 9/10.

I didn’t mention Cheng Yu in Eternal Love, but she was the Celestial Tribe/Heaven Clan’s 3rd prince Lian Song’s love interest. She’s sassy and independent. The new actress for Cheng Yu in this felt a little too young for Lian Song so it was a bit awkward to me, but I did like her as an actress (and outside of that mismatch).

They did a fun repurposing of the actor who played Zi Lan, the 16th disciple in Eternal Love. Now he becomes his demon twin brother, Yan Chiwu, and briefly notes his good-for-nothing “good” brother as a nod to the other character, lol. I think I like him as a demon better? At least he got to be more interesting.

This one made it on 11 of my lists:

1. Fav Shows
2. Kissworthy
3. Doting/Smitten
4. Keep Your Eyes Peeled
5. Want to Rewatch
6. Magic
7. Gimme More (Dilraba Dilmurat, Huang Jun Jie)
8. Lookalikes (Dilraba)
9. Pretty Boys (Gao Wei Guang)
10. Gorgeous (Dilraba, Wang Yi Fei)
11. Controversies (Huang Jun Jie)

Tropes/themes in this show:

• 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
• side character who also falls in love with main lead, but can never be with them and ends up accepting it
• main lead who sacrifices him/herself to save the other
• main lead is key to the destruction of the world (or preventing it)
• someone schemes to catch main lead in compromising situation

Show Summary:

A very long time ago, Donghua Dijun battled demon king Miao Luo and defeated her, sealing her. He is a legendary figure revered by pretty much everybody and became the emperor of the Heaven Clan. 30,000 years later, Bai Fengjiu of Qing Qiu kingdom (where the nine-tailed foxes live), wanders to Mount Qinyao and gets lost. She trespasses on an area the demons run, near where Miao Luo is sealed. Donghua senses something amiss and goes to check it out, killing a beast that was chasing Fengjiu. Not sure if he’s even aware she was there. She decides she has to repay him for saving her life. This is similar to Eternal Love but the situation for where she is rescued is different. She goes and begs Si Ming up in Heaven Clan to get her into Donghua’s palace so she can be a maid. Si Ming is in charge of mortals’ fates and he is friendly with Donghua.

Donghua has been trying out his cooking skills and gets Si Ming to try out a dish he made, which nearly kills him LOL. Fengjiu has entered the palace as a maid and encounters princess Zhi He, Donghua’s foster cousin. The princess is bratty and in love with Donghua. She bullies Fengjiu and makes her do chores. A special butterfly accidentally gets triggered and creates a windstorm. Fengjiu helps the injured butterfly, but Zhi He then throws it in a pond.

Donghua hears about General Meng Hao being trapped at Baishui mountain. He’s stuck there because he’s too in love with a demon queen that the demon lord Chi had used as bait to lure him there. Donghua doesn’t understand this love thing. Oh but he will I’m sure! The general is a dragon in his original form and he chooses to stay trapped.

Demon lord of the red demon clan, Xu Yang, wants to marry his sister Ji Heng off to Donghua. Demon lord of the green demon clan, Yan Chiwu is in love with her and doesn’t want that to happen.

Fengjiu ends up in the kitchen at the palace and makes delicious food. She’s an excellent cook. She’s supposed to deliver desserts to Donghua but drops them, so she replaces them with ones she made. Everybody likes her desserts but Zhi He gets credit for them. Later, Fengjiu is frying fish and Donghua smells it and comes to see. He has her continue to work in the kitchen.

Ji Heng doesn’t want to marry Donghua because she’s in love with her personal bodyguard, Min Su. Yan Chiwu challenges Donghua to a duel lol but the man doesn’t have time for him. Demon lord Nie Chuyin then suggests Chiwu steal a soul locking jade to get Donghua’s attention and force him to duel.

Fengjiu hears about the battle and rushes to go help. The jade has morphed into some evil lotus. Chuyin has an obsession with furs so he trades half his cultivation for some of Fengjiu’s tails. She can’t maintain human form and reverts to a fox. She’s able to help out a little but burns herself in the process lol. While helping bandage her, Donghua is fond of her and takes her back with him as a pet fox.

Min Su gets sent to a dangerous battle because Xu Yang wants him to stay away from his sister until she’s married to Donghua. Ji Heng goes and finds her love anyway. They get saved by Meng Hao, the general, in his dragon form. He is actually Ji Heng’s father, that must be why he willing stayed trapped there. Donghua senses Meng Hao needs help and goes, but the man is already dying. He asks Donghua to cure Ji Heng’s cold toxin disease.

Ji Heng tells Donghua about her love for Min Su. Donghua strikes an agreement with Xu Yang to let Min Su go. Ji Heng is sent to Donghua’s palace and Fengjiu gets jealous when she finds out Ji Heng is going to marry Donghua. She and Donghua have been bonding but he probably just takes her as an adorable pet. She’s been in fox form the whole time.

Zhe Yan, the phoenix immortal, is a close family friend of the foxes. He, Si Ming, and Si Ming’s girlfriend Cheng Yu (a good friend of Fengjiu’s) go beat up Nie Chuyin to get her tails back. Fengjiu goes home to Qing Qiu and regains her human form. She’s sad and ashamed because she got in trouble at the palace and was being punished, so she left.

Chuyin visits Miao Luo. He wants to help her break her seal and become the new demon lord to replace Xu Yang. She tells him to find the soul locking jade.

Princess Zhi He of course is also jealous that Ji Heng is going to marry her cousin. She replaces herself as the bride only to get taken by Chiwu thinking it was Ji Heng lol. She gets in trouble and gets exiled. Ji Heng and Min Su had already escaped as part of a plan/agreement with Donghua. They are captured by Xu Yang and Min Su reveals he’s actually a woman and kills herself to get Xu Yang to let Ji Heng go. Ji Heng is shocked. She jumps off a cliff with Min Su’s body and falls into the mortal realm. She ends up getting saved by Chuyin but loses all her memory.

Donghua is weak from the battle in the lotus, helping suppress Ji Heng’s poison, and then repairing Miao Luo’s seal. Lian Song, the third prince of Heaven Clan, suggests casting half of Donghua’s shadow away as a protective mechanism.

To restore his powers faster, Donghua decides to undergo trials in the mortal realm. He gets born as crown prince Song Xuanren of Chengyu kingdom. Fengjiu is told about this and wants to go check on him even though it could backfire on her. Immortals aren’t supposed to visit the mortal world and interfere with their lives. She goes anyway, helps him dressed as a soldier in a battle, and can’t be found afterwards. Xuanren sends his trusted general Ye Qingti to find the soldier but “he” has disappeared.

Chuyin is in the mortal realm convincing Chong’an’s (a foreign country) emperor to try to get the Lingbi stone, which is a legendary rock that helped Xuanren’s grandfather win a war. He uses Ji Heng as a pawn. She is called Chu Wan now and becomes the adopted daughter of Chong’an emperor. She is sent off to be married to Xuanren as part of peace talks. Chuyin makes something up to convince Chu Wan that she needs to find out where the stone is to help them.

Fengjiu’s interference in the battle caused Xuanren to not meet the woman he was supposed to fall in love with. Si Ming is upset with her and sends her back to get the two to meet. She poses as a soldier again and warns Qingti of an attack. She’s lauded as a hero and becomes one of Xuanren’s guards. She pretends she’s looking for her relative to find the woman that Xuanren was supposed to fall in love with. One night, she gets startled, falls in the water with Xuanren, and he sees her as a woman briefly when her hair comes undone. She escapes so he won’t know it was her. He sends people to find this mysterious women he fell in love with at first sight.

Fengjiu finally learns that the lady she was looking for ended up dying. So now there is nobody for Donghua’s love trial, which he needs to undergo to regain his cultivation. Si Ming asks Fengjiu to be Xuanren’s lover (who must break his heart), so he can complete his love trial. So, she reveals she was the woman in the water to Xuanren and he happily makes her an imperial lady. She gets maids and she picks a girl called Mu Yun, who she thinks is the butterfly that got killed by princess Zhi He.

Chu Wan has been searching the palace for the stone with no luck. She gets close to Xuanren so she can get in his bedroom as the final place to search. Fengjiu gets jealous. Later, she makes treats and has Qingti try them since he came by. Xuanren sees her feeding him since his hands were dirty and now he gets jealous. Qingti does have a crush on Fengjiu but I don’t think anyone knows. At various points, there are misunderstandings where Xuanren thinks she is talking about someone else when she’s really thinking about Donghua, who is really him… so he’s jealous with himself a lot lol.

Fengjiu is assigned dessert-making for a banquet and the taste tester dies of poison. She gets in trouble and is thrown in prison with her maid Mu Yun. Xuanren doesn’t believe it was her and has Qingti investigate. They try to get her to reveal her background because that mystery is partly why they can’t prove her innocence. She won’t tell though. Eventually Qingti figures out it was the plate that was poisoned and not her desserts, so Fengjiu is set free.

Xuanren takes Fengjiu to see the Lingbi stone, which seems to be the soul locking jade. It lights up when he touches, then lights up when she touches. Perhaps because it recognizes them both? Xuanren brought her to the tomb where the stone is because he wants help improving the trap mechanisms.

Chu Wan and her assistant Ling Xiang get close to finding the stone. Ling Xiang attempts to enter the tomb and triggered some traps. She gets caught, kills herself. Chu Wan is blamed for involvement and imprisoned. She gets rescued by Yan Chiwu, but she still doesn’t remember anything so she doesn’t know who he is.

Qingti takes Fengjiu to watch the sunset to brighten her mood. He gives her a bracelet and promises to help her if she ever wanted to leave the palace. Xuanren notices the bracelet and suspects she’s hiding something. He needs to choose an empress and makes it her. Qingti is super sad and writes her a love letter. On the wedding day, Fengjiu disappears with Qingti and Xuanren finds the letter.

Xuanren has people chase them down and eventually brings them back. They are imprisoned but Xuanren doesn’t want to kill them. Xuanren’s older brother Xuanying brings people to attack. He’s been working with Nie Chuyin this whole time trying to find the stone. Xuanren takes Fengjiu with him to the tomb where Xuanying is. A massive fight ensues, Fengjiu gets stabbed, Qingti shows up to help. Xuanren activates a self-destruction mechanism in the tomb and Qingti locks himself in the tomb with the bad guys to ensure they can’t escape. Xuanren and Fengjiu escape and he wants to start over, but she feels a great debt to Qingti now. She tells Xuanren she loves Qingti and jumps off a cliff.

Fengjiu returns to the immortal realm and asks her friend Xie Guchou, lord of the netherworld, to help her revive Ye Qingti. She can do so if she can get a magical fruit that would enable him to become immortal. Meanwhile, Guchou keeps his body in a suspended state. Xuanren dies of heartbreak and Donghua returns to his immortal body. This is also similar to the storyline in Eternal Love, Donghua’s mortal identity falls in love with Fengjiu and she has to break his heart and he dies young. He can’t remember what happened but there’s a tear in his eye.

Chiwu helps Chu Wan regain her memory and be Ji Heng again. She leaves to enter Fanyin valley, a place that Donghua said would be good to help her with her cold toxin.

An immortal Cang Yi is interested in Fengjiu and comes to ask for marriage. Fengjiu gets drunk with her buddy Cheng Yu and decides to agree. She claims to be over Donghua but really she’s not. When she sobers up, she tries to undo her mistake and challenges Cang Yi to a duel lol. Her dad and Zhe Yan the family friend show up to stop them. Ever the mediator, Zhe Yan suggests they cancel the agreement and Cang Yi finally agrees even though he likes her. She’s stubborn but he says he’ll wait for her to change her mind.

Bai Qian, Fengjiu’s aunt is about to get married (this is the main couple from Eternal Love) and Donghua comes as part of the entourage to pick her up from Qing Qiu so he can look for his fox pet that he lost. He pays no attention to Fengjiu in human form, not recognizing her. She goes to Heaven Clan to attend the wedding. Her family sets up some blind dates while she’s up there. She acts very undesirably and scares them off lol. Donghua happens to witness this behavior, is amused, and invites her to drink with him.

Later he encounters her again when she saves some people from a beast attack. Then, she ran away from a mob of suitors into an indoor bath, so she took a dip. He came in and she had nothing on lol. He handed her her clothes and she sheepishly crawled away. She realized she left behind some things, which Donghua took with him. She goes to ask for it back thinking he’s alone but behind her were a bunch of other immortals there for a meeting haha.

Princess Zhi He begs to return to Heaven Clan and continues to be her rude self. She tries to mess with Fengjiu. Fengjiu turns into a handkerchief to hide from Donghua at one point, he knows it’s her and picks her up, then messes with her. He then goes to fight Chiwu for the duel that I forgot all about. During the fight, she (as the handkerchief) and Chiwu both fall into an opening into Fanyin valley and land on the 2nd prince of the Biyi bird clan, Xiangli Meng.

This valley can only be entered and exited on rare occasions every 60 years so they’re stuck there for awhile. It’s always winter there. (There’s a story to that.) The prince was trying to sneak out and to cover that up, he makes up a story that gets them out of trouble too. So they pose as students interested in the Biyi tribe’s culture and enroll in their school. Chiwu sees a lady who looks like Ji Heng there but she doesn’t acknowledge him. She’s a music teacher there.

Fengjiu hears about a competition to win the fruit she needs to revive Qingti, so she goes from being a nonchalant student to an eager one so she can enter the competition. A substitute teacher is supposed to come teach a course that Donghua normally would do a guest lecture on and the students want to play a trick on him. Instead, Donghua actually shows up and the normal teacher falls into the trap.

Fengjiu is mad at Donghua for not coming for so long, he turns into a handkerchief to let her have revenge on him. But then he transports himself back to Heaven Clan to play Go with Lian Song (3rd prince). She confronts Donghua when she finds out and gives him back the handkerchief. She finds out Ji Heng is in the valley and assumes Donghua is there for her rival and not her.

Fengjiu and Ji Heng end up having to compete in tea-making and Ji Heng wins. Ji Heng is interested in Donghua now, probably because Min Su was a dead end.

Since she couldn’t get into the competition, Fengjiu tries to steal the fruit. She learns the serpents guarding it leave briefly during the full moon so she gets Chiwu to help her dig a tunnel. But Donghua messes with it and they get lost in different directions. She ends up seeing a woman seducing Donghua. It turns out to be Miao Luo’s spirit. Fengjiu fights the spirit with Donghua (they make some moooooves together) and they defeat her but then they’re stuck there because a barricade was triggered. Donghua gets her to bandage his arm, he acts all fussy to get attention from her lol. He lays in her lap and grabs her hand too. What a baby. They end up falling asleep next to each other. He’s intrigued by her since everybody else in the universe wants his protection, but she’s the only who wants to protect him.

Donghua and Chiwu trade rooms so they get to be in the courtyards with the girls they like. Ji Heng is not happy haha. Donghua gets Fengjiu into the competition and becomes her trainer. He trains her pretty hard and even uses it to vent his jealousy. At one point when she falls and he catches her, they end up kissing but she bit his lip so it wasn’t exactly romantic.

Oh yeah, Meng has a sister, princess Jie Lu, who comes in from time to time.

Bahaha Meng had a cricket that died and he’s devastated. He got it from a Qing Qiu princess when he was exploring once. That was Fengjiu! She was taking A’Li (her nephew) out back when she was recovering from her embarrassment up at Donghua’s. Meng has been in love with this lady ever since then even though never saw her face because she had a veil on.

The first round of the competition is music and Ji Heng plays a tune for the student to harmonize with. She purposely makes a difficult one for Fengjiu but Fengjiu still passes. On the next round, ice beams, Fengjiu and Chiwu are the last ones standing. Ji Heng secretly uses magic to control Chiwu and make him aggressive. Donghua notices and knocks her out, Fengjiu then wins. But all she notices is Donghua carrying Ji Heng away.

Donghua forces evil power out of Ji Heng and she begs him to give her the fruit. He agrees because he never intended to give it to Fengjiu. Why? Fengjiu is so let down by this. She decides she needs to go steal the fruit and she gets trapped in A’Lanruo’s dream. A’Lanruo was a princess of the tribe and her lover created the dream to keep her alive, or something like that. Fengjiu could get stuck in there and never come out, so Donghua goes to enter the dream with her and bring her back.

When he arrives they are in some sort of waiting area lol, not the dream itself (yet?). Fengjiu thinks she’s dreaming about Donghua again so she pulls him down for a kiss. When he gets over the initial surprise, he then pulls her in for a deeper kiss and they roll around on the bed hahaha. That doesn’t look comfortable at all. When Donghua tells her it’s not a dream, she’s confused. She’s lost some of her recent memories so she’s not mad at him or jealous. He tells her they already got married to get her to let her guard down and trust him more. She’s weak and needs to recover, he works some magic on her.

Then they enter the dream, where a bunch of maids are calling her A’Lanruo now. She has to orient herself and get answers out of the maids. Eventually she learns she grew up with the serpents and Shen Ye as a boy would come to visit her, then eventually saved her from her situation. He’s been in love with her all this time. Ok so the characters for his name are 沉晔, which should translate to Chen Ye, but I swear the pronunciation in the show is Shen Ye and that’s how it’s subtitled too, so that’s what I’m using. And A’Lanruo 阿兰若 sounds like A’Lanre in the show but the character is ruo and that’s what the subtitles used so I’m going with that. That one I believe could be an accent thing of why it sounds a little off, or when you say it fast it can easily be heard otherwise.

Donghua enters the dream and takes over Xi Ze, who is A’Lanruo’s husband. I think the real Lord Xi Ze is an older man probably in his 40’s. He is a doctor, so it’s a good cover for him to enter the palace to treat A’Lanruo’s sister, princess Ju Nuo. Donghua finds out Ju Nuo is pregnant and might be hosting Fengjiu’s primordial spirit. I guess she’s the incubator to help Fengjiu’s spirit recover?

Su Moye, A’Lanruo’s master, gets sent into the dream by Lian Song because he’s worried. Moye’s mom was the empress snake so he’s able to enter the dream. He’s been investigating A’Lanruo’s death and he knows a bit about the history. He tells Fengjiu that the dream was created as a chance to revive A’Lanruo. They need to find out how she died as a method to complete the dream and get out.

• 

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• 

When Moye meets Xi Ze, he suspects it’s Donghua. Originally, A’Lanruo was married to Xi Ze but they never lived together. So a marriage in name only. Shen Ye is Xi Ze’s disciple and took over his position. He looks just like Donghua. A’Lanruo was really into snakes (having grown up with them) but Fengjiu is not, so she plots to get an excuse for A’Lanruo’s pet snake Qing to stay away from her. Moye helps with the plot that involves Chang Di, another princess who likes to bully A’Lanruo along with Ju Nuo. Donghua follows and sees, then approaches Fengjiu and she hands him a mask without looking, thinking he’s Moye. There’s some event/holiday/tradition they’re following. They go look at cool glowing flowers and she talks about the man she loves but cannot remember.

Fengjiu gets in trouble for letting the snake loose and is imprisoned. There’s a fire and Shen Ye rushes to save her. She talks to Moye about A’Lanruo’s life and her own. Donghua listens in and takes her back to her room when she falls asleep. She’s surprised to see him when she wakes up, thinking he is Xi Ze of course. Donghua then goes to meet with Moye and reveal his identity. They discuss how to get out of the dream safely.

There’s a banquet to enjoy the stars and Chang Di harasses Fengjiu for not knowing where Xi Ze is. He turns up, saying he went to the mountains to get herbs for her. He makes a big show of his concern for her, which the princesses are not happy with haha. Shen Ye doesn’t pay much attention to his fiancée Ju Nuo and stares at Fengjiu instead. He seems to sense that Fengjiu isn’t A’Lanruo. I guess he’s been trapped in the dream this whole time searching for her?

The princesses set up a trap to lure Moye to A’Lanruo’s room to frame them for being together. Instead they’re tricked to find Donghua with her haha. They even get the king to witness their trickery. Donghua carries her off to his room. Then Moye shows up to seal the deal by telling the king about the fake letter. YAS, win.

The princesses get punished (gently) but then Ju Nuo gets in trouble for an affair with her teacher. Oh the irony! She is set to be beheaded and Chang Di gets exiled for breaking a lamp. My my. Moye believes Ju Nuo can’t die because that’s not close enough to the real timeline and then they may not figure out how A’Lanruo died and get out of the dream.

At the execution, Fengjiu has to step up and stop it. She has to bleed on a sword as part of it and that triggers an alert for Miao Luo. She had some red Qi she hid in a fetus when she was defeated by Donghua and it turns out that baby was Fengjiu. That explains the red mark on her forehead. Miao Luo needs that blood back to break free of her seal. Donghua fights her, then Fengjiu gets sucked back into her real body.

Now she recovers her primordial spirit in her own body and she remembers Donghua. He’s fighting Miao Luo in flashes of blue and red. They fly off to who knows where and she goes looking for him, following a trail of blood until she reaches a cave. Eventually she finds him in there and he rushes her, kissing her until they back into a stone wall. Lol he acts like a little baby with her.

Now he gets a chance to explain he didn’t want her to have the fruit because he thought she was just going to make treats for Chiwu and he was jealous, ai. They rest but have to go back and continue pretending to be A’Lanruo and Xi Ze. A’Lanruo’s body is gone now that Fengjiu is back and Donghua figures there’s some sort of connection between the two. I mean come on, they look identical! He’ll need to create a magical mirror to investigate.

Shen Ye moves in to A’Lanruo’s place. To save him from punishment (because he’s Ju Nuo’s fiancé?), A’Lanruo had claimed she needed him to work for her. I guess in the original timeline, he got punished because he defended Ju Nuo. He has lots of memories at A’Lanruo’s. He’s still trying to figure out how to save his love.

Moye learns about Fengjiu returning and now A’Lanruo’s body disappearing. He says originally Shen Ye was in a bad mood upon moving in so A’Lanruo would write letters to him to help with his mood. So now Fengjiu needs to send him letters too, under the guise of or pen name of Wen Tian, a teacher. A’Lanruo had thought Shen Ye might not read the letters if he knew they were from her. Shen Ye has the original letters and compares them, they’re basically identical but he suspects she’s not A’Lanruo. He confronts her, gets mad, drinks.

Donghua shows up to take Fengjiu on a nice date. He makes butterflies and flowers float everywhere, then takes her out to town for a holiday. He tells her his intention to marry her and make her his empress. (The Dijun 帝君part of his name is a title essentially meaning emperor. It’s a less used way of calling one an emperor and a rather respectable one.) They share a nice kiss.

Miao Luo is lurking and Donghua secretly goes to fight her. Fengjiu is unhappy she was abandoned, not knowing what’s going on. Back at her place, Shen Ye is drunk and unhappy too. What a mess.

Donghua gets Moye to help him with the mirror. It’s an arduous task. He spends time with Fengjiu and she enjoys the attention.

Moye tells Fengjiu more about A’Lanruo and Shen Ye. They eventually finally confessed their feelings to each other and Moye left after that. Fengjiu suspects because he had feelings for A’Lanruo too. Two years after that, the bird emperor died, was succeeded by his son, then the son died. A’Lanruo would have been next in line but Ju Nuo took over instead. I guess A’Lanruo was blamed for supposedly poisoning the emperor and hanged herself.

Meanwhile in the real world, Jie Lu the bird princess had been trying to get the story of A’Lanruo from her mother the current empress. A’Lanruo was her sister and they loved the same man (Shen Ye). A’Lanruo’s dream was created by him because of his obsession. The current empress turns out to be Ju Nuo, the princess we meet in the dream.

Fengjiu finally reveals to Shen Ye she’s not A’Lanruo and gets him to confess he loved A’Lanruo. She tells him he shouldn’t have hidden his feelings. Donghua sees Shen Ye hugging Fengjiu and gets jealous and leaves. She sees him, runs after him, but can’t find him and it starts raining. He finally returns all wet after walking around for hours and takes a bath. He’s all jealous and pulls her into the bath as they talk it out, then she gives him a peck on the cheek. They happily get cozy and end up consummating their relationship. Does it count in dreamland? Lol.

• 

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• 

Shen Ye’s been trying to gather A’Lanruo’s primordial spirit with a soul gathering lamp. It gets broken when Miao Luo comes to attack. The spirit enters Fengjiu’s body and she can see/feel A’Lanruo’s memories. A’Lanruo had been so crestfallen when Shen Ye returned to the palace, thinking he abandoned her. Donghua and Moye finish the mirror and see A’Lanruo’s past too.

The empress arranged the war so the son could get killed in battle and her daughter Ju Nuo could take over. A’Lanruo was thrown in prison and saved by Xi Ze. She learns about her brother’s danger and goes to replace him. She sacrificed herself to kill all the enemy soldiers in a fiery blaze. In his grief, Shen Ye used all his powers to cut out 3 of the seasons, leaving only bitter winter as a reminder to everyone of A’Lanruo’s death.

Shen Ye is connected to Donghua; he’s Donghua’s shadow’s reincarnation. Remember back when Donghua sent his shadow off as a protective mechanism when he was weak? That became Shen Ye. Fengjiu had her shadow cast too, to go follow his shadow and repay his kindness, and that’s how A’Lanruo came to be. Her soul can’t be recovered, it’s now back with Fengjiu, so they need Shen Ye to give up his obsession. He kills himself since he can’t bring A’Lanruo back and re-enters Donghua. Miao Luo shows up and extracts the red Qi blood from Fengjiu. Now they exit the dream.

Miao Luo is getting close to breaking the seal and needs Nie Chuyin to get a blood tear that the demon clans protect. He will need to kill the leader Xu Yang (the guy who tried to marry Ji Heng off to Donghua) to get it. A bunch of the bird clan is going to stay in the valley to defend it and fight Miao Luo. It’s basically a death mission. They send off little Jie Lu princess because their clan needs a leader to survive.

Fengjiu is able to get the fruit to Qingti’s body in the netherworld but it will take time for him to awaken and she’ll give half her cultivation when the time comes to revive him. She now needs to make a sword for a ceremony for her to take over as queen of Qing Qiu. Her aunt Bai Qian was the monarch, but now that she married into the Heaven Clan, Qing Qiu needs a new monarch.

At the ceremony, Fengjiu is able to get through the trial, but then Chuyin shows up to challenge her to a duel. He beats her and wants to get a promise from Qing Qiu, but then he’s told he would also need to defeat her husband. Nobody has a clue who that is, lol. Even her family doesn’t know about her relationship. And then the big reveal, Donghua steps up as her husband LOL. He easily defeats Chuyin.

Donghua goes to Qing Qiu to talk marriage with Fengjiu’s parents. He promises to give her freedom to make her own decisions. He wants to hold the ceremony at his personal secret island thing, which nobody is able to access. They have sweet moments together, he takes her there and they talk about what they’re going to build in the future.

Donghua gets called away for duty and doesn’t make it to his wedding banquet. He needs to go help Xu Yang. Ji Heng meets with him too and wants him to stop his marriage. He helps absorb all of her toxin into his body and sends her off.

Fengjiu hears that Donghua was seen with Ji Heng and when she learns it’s true she’s super depressed, thinking he left her. She finds out she is pregnant and decides to leave Qing Qiu. She transfers her cultivation to Qingti as she intended and goes to live in the mortal realm with her child. She only returns to the Heaven Clan when it’s time for a ceremony for Qingti to get assigned a position now that he’s an immortal.

Qingti is appointed as the successor to Donghua’s palace, which surprises people. They expect Donghua Dijun to live forever and be forever powerful, after all. Donghua wants to meet Fengjiu one last time. She’s still hurt and thinks he left her for Ji Heng. He gives her a ring but she rejects it and he’s heartbroken but still loves her deeply.

Chiwu works with Donghua and others to try to seal Miao Luo into the valley since the crack is opening after 60 years. But they don’t quite get her in and Dong Hua has an epic battle with her.

Fengjiu smells something fishy and finally gets Donghua’s guard to tell her the truth. She learns of all the things Donghua’s been doing to save the world this whole time and that the ring was made of half of his heart. Now Fengjiu has to go see Donghua. He’s in the midst of fighting Miao Luo and has sealed them so nobody else can enter.

Fengjiu finds out she can actually enter because she’s wearing the ring made of Donghua’s heart. She goes to fight with him. They discover that Fengjiu’s blood works against Miao Luo so she smears the swords with them and Miao Luo is destroyed. They are both too weak to do anything else and they lay there. Their blood pools eventually touch and it cleanses all the dark energy.

Chiwu has been wooing Ji Heng this whole time and she finally realizes his importance to her and accepts him. Jie Lu princess’s clan is mostly demolished but the survivors get refuge in Qing Qiu. Who is there to be the monarch in place of Fengjiu now?

Donghua nurses an inured and unconscious Fengjiu when a white-haired child shows up. He runs to her calling “mommy” and Donghua stops him to ask him who he is. Ok, he’s got hair like you (and nobody else does) and he’s yelling “mommy” to your wife, who do you think he is?! Lol. Also why doesn’t the kid think he’s the father when he sees hair like his? Donghua finally learns he has a son and he’s shocked (I think that’s the only time in his entire life… he seems to take everything else in stride). Fengjiu eventually wakes up from her injuries and yay, happy family.

This was one of the most memorable shows I watched, which really got me into the whole xianxia genre of shows. I enjoyed the magic and the multiple lives concept that allowed us to experience various worlds. A lot of this felt vaguely familiar, since it closely follows many Chinese beliefs about immortals up in the heavens. I think back on parts of the show often and I will definitely want to rewatch it at some point.

I first became obsessed with Zhang Bin Bin (Vin Zhang) coming out of this and eventually watched a bunch of his other costume dramas too. He was my first actor crush from the shows, with many more to follow lol. He was the reason I made a “Gimme More” list of actors I want to see more of.

Major thanks to Drama Slot for the episode summary I referenced for my own summary.

Total episodes: 58, about 40 min each (watched it on Netflix but you can find it on Viki)

Listen to the OST on Spotify (my fav song is Liang Liang 凉凉=cold/cool “Bracing the Chill“)

Title in Chinese is San Sheng San Shi Shi Li Tao Hua 三生三世十里桃花:
San = three, sheng = life/lives, san = three again, shi = world, the next shi = ten, li = mile, tao = peach, hua = flower. So three lives, three worlds, 10 miles of peach blossoms. This is referencing what happens in the show and a location in it that is a peach tree paradise.

Warning: possible spoilers ahead!

I rated this one a 10/10.

I loved so much about this show. For me it got really interesting around episode 10 and then just kept going with more and more craziness. I guess I really didn’t know what I was getting into at the start of my cdrama journey haha.

I was captivated by Ye Hua’s utter devotion to Su Su/Bai Qian and all the pain he underwent throughout the whole process. Poor kid did not have it easy, with duty and betrayal and loss.

What I didn’t like about Bai Qian’s character is that she had basically no attachment to her child. She was very selfish in that aspect and was more focused on herself or Ye Hua. This is one of the reasons I don’t think I want kids, because I’m concerned I might be like that.

This one made it on a whopping 13 of my lists:

1. Fav Shows
2. Kissworthy
3. Doting/Smitten
4. Keep Your Eyes Peeled
5. Want to Rewatch
6. Magic
7. Cross-Dressing
8. Palace Dramas
9. Alternate Identity
10. Gimme More (Vin Zhang, Dilraba Dilmurat, Dai Si)
11. Lookalikes (Vin, Dilraba)
12. Pretty Boys (Gao Wei Guang)
13. Gorgeous (Dilraba, Dai Si)

Tropes/themes in this show:

• 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
• 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 (ok the second part I think isn’t true…)
• 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
• arranged marriage that turns out to be with the person they fell in love with in a different context
• main female dresses as a man and another woman falls in love with her
• main females dresses as a man and lives amongst them without being discovered
• someone decides the only way to protect themselves and their loved ones is by gaining power (usually a throne)

Show Summary:

There’s a naughty little fox who is the daughter of the fox king, Bai Zhu. They are the Nine-Tailed White Fox Tribe. She gets sent to a famous mountain, Kunlun, to cultivate and stay out of trouble. The god who takes her there magically disguises her as a boy since the master only takes male disciples. The master is Mo Yuan, God of War, and he can see through the disguise, but still accepts her because a precious magic fan chose her (so that means something good right?). The god who took her there gives her the name Si Yin. She and another guy show up at the same time and she becomes the last, 17th disciple.

After maaaaaaaaaaaaany many years (20,000 apparently), Si Yin is known to be Mo Yuan’s favorite disciple. This is the part of the story that didn’t really get me the first time — I see the dedication he has to her but I don’t feel it. And why exactly does he like her? Maybe when I rewatch, I’ll notice more.

There’s a goddess who is in love with Mo Yuan and is jealous so she kidnaps Si Yin, but of course Mo Yuan saves his disciple. He then fights and basically breaks ties with the goddess, chasing her off the mountain.

One of the fox’s cousins gets sent to the mountain to escape an arranged marriage, her name is Xuan Nu.

On the mountain, there is a golden lotus in a pond, which Mo Yuan takes care of. It was given to him by his father and he’s supposed to care for it until it can take human form.

Si Yin likes to sneak off the mountain and she convinces one of her disciple brothers, the 9th one – Ling Yu, to go with her (as they often do). They get captured by the Ghost Tribe Lord, Qing Cang, on their way. He’s plotting a rebellion against the Celestial Tribe and apparently forcing Ling Yu to be his godson is going to help.

Ghost Tribe’s second prince, Li Jing, and princess, Yan Zhi, are both pretty nice folks unlike their dad and they both take a liking to Si Yin. I guess Li Jing can tell Si Yin is a woman. I don’t understand the naming convention of this tribe, I guess there are no family names? Or Qing Cang and Yan Zhi’s names actually supposed to be Li Qing Cang and Li Yan Zhi? Or they aren’t actually biologically related? Both siblings at some point help Si Yin escape. Also I love their looks, not only are both actors beautiful but I love the little face things they have that make them look a little animalistic.

Ultimately it’s Mo Yuan who comes, fights Qing Cang, and brings back his two disciples. Si Yin was supposed to undergo a trial that is lightning bolts (common thing for immortals in their cultivation, apparently), but Mo Yuan takes them for her. Why? Because she’s not ready? What’s the point of him doing it, why does she still get credit?

Up at the Celestial Tribe, the Heavenly Lord is like the emperor and is concerned about Qing Cang’s growing power and ambition. One of his advisors is the very old and powerful (yet never aging) Donghua Dijun, who apparently is as old as time and isn’t interested in running the court so he lets Heavenly Lord rule. They figure they should replace Qing Cang with someone more cooperative, like Li Jing. Over at the Fox Tribe (they live in Qing Qiu), the fox king’s granddaughter is born and named Bai Fengjiu. She gets her own show with Eternal Love of Dream.

Li Jing got in trouble for helping Si Yin but his sister helps him escape and he eventually goes to Kunlun mountain to confess his feelings to Si Yin. They won’t let him on the grounds and he fights with the senior disciple, Die Feng. Eventually he finds a cave nearby to stay at. He starts courting Si Yin, but Xuan Nu is jealous and wants to be with him, so she makes herself look like Si Yin to seduce Li Jing. Si Yin catches them together and gets upset. Li Jing highly regrets it but it’s too late. He goes back to Ghost Tribe and Xuan Nu follows him.

Qing Cang is furious with Li Jing but Xuan Nu saves him by offering to help Qing Cang in his war as long as she can marry Li Jing. So they get married and Li Jing is miserable. Xuan Nu ends up getting beaten and sent back to Kunlun as a declaration of war.

The battle starts and Ling Yu (9th disciple) is gravely injured. Li Jing protects Si Yin against his brother the first prince of Ghost Tribe, Li Yuan. Si Yin’s 4th brother Bai Zhen swoops in to save her and Ling Yu but Ling Yu still dies from his injuries. Mo Yuan ultimately has to use a magic bell to capture Qing Cang, then sacrifice his soul to seal Qing Cang in the bell.

Si Yin is absolutely devastated and clings on to her master’s final words: wait for me to return. She refuses to believe he’s dead dead. She takes his lifeless body and uses blood from her heart to preserve him. It’s a special power that the Fox Tribe’s blood has.

Li Jing has taken over the Ghost Tribe and locked up his brother Li Yuan (but I think he made everyone believe Li Yuan was dead). Si Yin learns that they have a jade that can preserve bodies, so she goes to ask Li Jing for it but he says it was lost. Xuan Nu shows up with the jade, which makes Si Yin mad he lied to her. He was jealous of Mo Yuan. Now he’s mad at Xuan Nu.

A childless couple from Celestial Tribe (the eldest prince and his wife, I believe) was sent to Kunlun and they encounter the golden lotus, which ends up floating into the wife’s body and giving them a child (or I guess more accurately, a pregnancy). When the baby is born, a very auspicious sign shows up in the sky. He is named Ye Hua.

Si Yin returns to her home in Qing Qiu (where the nine-tailed foxes live) and goes back to being Bai Qian. That’s who she really is and she was a princess of the Fox Tribe before she went to Kunlun and lived as a male disciple. 70,000 years pass and this is when Mo Yuan’s seal on the bell is going to wear off. Ye Hua has grown up and he’s either the crown prince or at least the de facto one. Why his dad isn’t next in line may have been addressed but I don’t recall. He looks just like Mo Yuan and people start commenting on it here and there when they meet him. Is he a reincarnation? A clone?

Bai Qian has been keeping Mo Yuan’s body in a cave at her tribe, she’s taken over as Queen of Qing Qiu and now she’s considered an auntie (aka not a spring chicken anymore). She was betrothed to Sang Ji, the second son of the Heavenly Lord, and Ye Hua’s uncle, but she’s not very interested in even meeting him. Again with the lack of family names… did they just never mention a possible shared surname for Ye Hua and Sang Ji? He goes to Qing Qiu but she doesn’t come out and he meets and falls in love with Shao Xin, Bai Qian’s maid instead. Ultimately, the couple gets exiled and Bai Qian’s engagement is shifted to Ye Hua to maintain the alliance between the tribes. Su Jin, a girl who was adopted by the royal family after her entire tribe was annihilated, grew up with Ye Hua and is not happy about this engagement.

Meanwhile, at this point Fengjiu has grown up into a spritely young girl and she is saved by Dijun in a chance encounter. She probably falls in love instantly. He’s a beautiful man with a white mane and an aloof personality. She decides she needs to repay his kindness so she eventually tracks him down up in Celestial Tribe and goes to be a maid at his palace.

Mo Yuan had told Bai Qian how to seal the bell before he sacrificed his soul, so now Bai Qian goes to try to reseal the bell. She battles it out with Qing Cang, who has been gathering power inside the bell all these years. He is able to send her down to the mortal realm with her memories wiped. So somewhere around here is when things started to get interesting for me. I didn’t care as much about the Kunlun/Mo Yuan/Si Yin storyline and once we transitioned away, I liked the show a lot more.

As a mortal, Bai Qian is living in a remote hut she happened upon in the middle of the forest. She randomly comes across what appears to be an injured snake, which she takes him to nurse. She’s living sort of like a Snow White at this point, with random animals that she cares for. Turns out this “snake” is actually Ye Hua’s dragon form shrunk down. He got injured fighting a beast he was supposed to tame. There are some funny scenes where Bai Qian is talking at the snake and he’s getting offended or being rude to her, but she can’t understand what he’s hissing about. He eventually falls for her and comes back in human form pretending to be injured. They spend time together as she nurses him back and she falls for him too. As a mortal, she doesn’t have a name, so he names her Su Su. I hate this name and cringed every time they used it haha. It just sounds so unoriginal and a little childish.

Su Jin weasels her way into becoming the Heavenly Lord’s (Ye Hua’s grandpa) consort. She’s plotting to become Ye Hua’s consort, which is her real goal.

Su Su and Ye Hua’s relationship develops, they get married and live a quiet peaceful life, but he has to leave her one day and he’s gone for 6 months! This is the craziness of time warp between the heavenly and mortal realms, each day the heavens is a year on earth. He had to handle some business in the heavens, which took a couple of hours… and the mortals lost half a year. He has to think of a way to bring her to the heavenly realm but avoid the mistakes of his uncle Sang Ji who had nearly lost his life trying to be with the woman he loved.

His plan is to fake his death and go be with her in the mortal world. He gives her a copper mirror that they can talk through (basically a walkie talkie set) and then returns to his duties. The Mermaid Clan has been plotting a rebellion that he needs to quell. During the battle, his copper mirror falls and Su Jin finds it, thus finding out about Su Su. Su Su is desperate to find Ye Hua so she breaks through the protective barrier he set up to hide her and is discovered by the Celestial Tribe. They were going to kill her but when they find out she is pregnant with Ye Hua’s child, they imprison her.

Over in Ghost Tribe, Yan Zhi finds her oldest brother was being held captive so she helps save him. She wants her brothers to make up but they won’t and Li Yuan plots his own rebellion. Xuan Nu is pregnant with Li Jing’s child and he finally warms up to her a little bit. When she finds out the child has no heartbeat, she hides it from him and desperately seeks a solution.

Ye Hua awakes from his injuries to learn Su Su was captured. He has to pretend to be indifferent to Su Su to protect her life, but he privately visits her when he can. Su Jin does all sorts of crooked things to prey on Su Su the poor mortal and she misleads her into thinking Ye Hua doesn’t really care about her. She even frames Su Su for pushing her into a dangerous portal when she jumped in herself. Su Jin comes out blind and Su Su is punished by giving her eyesight to Su Jin. Ye Hua decides to do it himself to try to minimize the horror but Su Su is traumatized. Looking back, I didn’t like how weak and pathetic Su Su was.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Celestial Tribe, Fengjiu and Dijun have had some time together and he has had to save her a few more times lol. She’ll never get her debt repaid. She ends up hanging out at his place in her fox form and basically being his pet. He might know what’s really going on but he seems to enjoy playing along.

Li Jing doesn’t want to kill his brother because it will only make their father stronger. Yan Zhi can’t handle seeing her brothers like this so she retreats to live in peace in the mortal realm. Xuan Nu basically gives birth to a stillborn but she won’t give up and treats the baby like a normal one.

Su Su gives birth to a son and names him A’Li (as in separation). Shortly thereafter, she jumps into the portal that Su Jin went into before. Normally for mortals, you die, but she falls back into her immortal world. Ye Hua jumps in after her and is heavily injured. This whole time, there was also the standing engagement to Bai Qian that both sides were putting off (the Fox Tribe because Bai Qian was missing and Ye Hua because he was already in love).

Fengjiu is told to leave the Celestial Tribe because she was causing too many problems for Dijun. Bai Qian returns to her immortal form after this trial as a mortal and decides to drink a forgetfulness potion to drown away the depressing memories. She retains sensitivity to light due to her eye injury as a mortal.

Ye Hua is only saved by the Soul Gathering Lamp, a precious item from Su Jin’s tribe. She is rewarded for getting it by becoming his consort but he’s cold to her. He is desperate to try to find Su Su or bring her back to life. He tries using the Soul Gathering Lamp but it’s not enough. 300 years later, he’s just as tortured and still trying. A’Li is a toddler and his father dotes on him while pining for his mother. Fengjiu steals the lamp to try to bring back Mo Yuan for her aunt (Bai Qian). Ye Hua is devastated thinking he can’t bring back Su Su anymore.

Dijun secretly decides to do a mortal trial to allow Fengjiu to have a romance with him, since his immortal being is incapable of love. She is told that to repay his kindness, she can accompany him on his trial. He’s the emperor and she’s one of his concubines. I don’t think he looks very good in this character, so I didn’t really care of this part of the story. Man he really rocks that white hair look.

• 

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The Eastern Sea king is having a banquet to celebrate his new son and a bunch of important immortals are to attend. On the way there, Ye Hua catches Bai Qian falling out of a tree and recognizes Su Su but she vanishes. Before the banquet, they finally meet when she runs into A’Li. She lends him her fan and he accidentally triggers the magical power so it blows away all the light covers. Her sensitivity to light is triggered and a white sash covers her eyes to protect them. It’s just like what she used as a mortal after her sight was taken. A’Li immediately recognizes her as his mother from the painting he grew up with and Ye Hua approaches her but of course she’s all “yo stranger don’t touch me.”

Later he runs into her again in the garden and notices clues that convince him she’s Su Su. A’Li is a great clingy child here, ensuring the two get a chance to be around each other. Bai Qian cutely nicknames him something like “sticky rice ball” because of it. Then Ye Hua straight up leaves A’Li at Qing Qiu and then moves in under the excuse that they are engaged lol. At one point, she takes A’Li on a little outing to the mortal world and gets in a little trouble. Ye Hua shows up to save her and later he kisses her dressed as a man (as time freezes?) and he’s not shy at all about his love.

Su Jin frames Sang Ji’s teenage son Yuan Zhen for molesting her and he gets punished with a trial in the mortal world. He shows up as Dijun’s son in that trial. Shao Xin begs Bai Qian to step in and help her son because his fate is a terrible one in this mortal life. Bai Qian agrees to go spend time in the mortal realm and becomes his master.

While she’s gone, Xuan Nu shows up in Qing Qiu, finds Mo Yuan’s body, and decides to take and A’Li with her. She’s looking for any way to restore her son… who has been a body in a crib all this time? When Bai Qian comes back from the mortal realm, she goes to the Ghost Tribe to battle it out with Xuan Nu. Ye Hua has to come in to save her.

To help Dijun succeed in his trial, he needs to experience all the bitterness of mortal life, including heartbreak. Fengjiu has to do this to him, oh boy.

Ye Hua learns about Bai Qian’s past as Si Yin and her relationship with Mo Yuan. He sees the resemblance they have. Later, he sees Bai Qian entering a lake and uses his magic to drag her out kiss her, almost to reassure himself. He’s traumatized from when Su Su jumped in the portal.

Ye Hua convinced Bai Qian to go to the Celestial Tribe with him and lets her live in the palace where Su Su used to be. Su Jin is super jealous and causes some ruckus.

The eldest prince of the Western Sea has been unconscious for awhile and Zhe Yan (the immortal who took Bai Qian to Kunlun at the beginning) finally figures out it is because Mo Yuan’s soul has been reassembling there. Bai Qian and Ye Hua both go there and Ye Hua tries to force a kiss. It’s aggressive. She needs the Soul Gathering Lamp and he has brought it for her, but he really wants her to love him. To repay him, she lets him carry her to bed and they spend the night together. Does she like him or is she just tolerating?

Ye Hua then goes on a dangerous trip to get a magical plant to help restore Mo Yuan. He’s jealous of what Bai Qian might feel for Mo Yuan but still willing to give her what she wants. His arm gets ripped off by one of the beasts guarding the plant cave but he gets what he needs.

Xuan Nu had found Zhi Yan in the mortal world and they went to try to get some of the plant too. Xuan Nu dies in the process and Zhi Yan has to go to great efforts to make the elixir that ultimately saves her nephew and brings him to life.

Mo Yuan is revived and he explains who Ye Hua is. He was that golden lotus, which was actually his twin brother. Ok, definitely not what I was expecting, I thought they’d be more of the same soul split up or something. There was trouble during the birth and their father had to use half his cultivation to preserve the second child in lotus form. When Mo Yuan’s soul dissipated, Ye Hua the lotus was restored and able to become a human fetus. Now he finds that his twin is with the love of his life… sad. He accepts it though and does his best to wish them well.

Ye Hua had to undergo a trial as a mortal and Su Jin sends a Su Su creation to him to convince Bai Qian that he only loves Su Su and not her. Bai Qian does start to question, so she drinks. She accidentally knocks over the Soul Gathering Lamp and breaks it, which releases fragments of her soul. She remembers her life as Su Su and goes to get revenge on Su Jin, getting her eyes back. Su Jin tries to complain to Heavenly Lord and Dijun, but her lies and terrible crimes are exposed. She is banished to guard the bell and is given fish eyes with poor vision so she’s sort of blind.

Qing Cang’s spirit gets released and he kills his son to gain more power. A giant battle ensues and Ye Hua now has to sacrifice himself to seal the bell and defeat Qing Cang. He dies in Bai Qian’s arms and she is devastated. She had been questioning whether he loved her or just pitied her but now she just wants to keep his body. His family demand it back and they eventually get it and put it in basically the Celestial Tribe’s cemetery.

Bai Qian often dreams of him and sits at a little tombstone she erected for him. She passes on her queenship to Fengjiu, who didn’t want it because she was heartbroken she couldn’t be with Dijun, but finally relented. Bai Qian has been wandering the world. A’Li shows up and has her come with him to visit Ye Hua’s grave. She falls asleep there and dreams of him again.

After she leaves, there is energy around the coffin and Ye Hua is alive again. The cemetery was a great place for healing his primordial spirit. He had spent all the powers of his dad, which were in him from when he was a lotus and when he defeated the beasts guarding the magical plant. He rushes to go find Bai Qian in the peach tree woods. I completely forgot to note these magical woods with ever-blossoming peach trees. It’s the immortal Zhe Yan’s retreat where he often hangs out with Bai Qian’s 4th brother Bai Zhen. Bai Qian would often go there to hide and get away from the world. That was where she fell out of the tree and she and Ye Hua first met as immortals. It holds very special meaning to her. She thinks she’s dreaming again but Ye Hua assures her this time she is not.

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.