Hoooo boy. This is getting intense.
The Demon King is trying to call Lin Mo to come to it–it can save her!
Jiu Chen says: Give me whatever has been protecting you!
Lin Mo says: But–but I’ll die.
Jiu Chen says: Everyone who loves you is waiting for you. Including me, yes, OKAY.
Lin Mo says: But that’s someone else! I’m Lin Mo. I’m a mortal girl. I have a family!
(Yuan Tong and Thunder are both watching all this, with…different expressions.)
Lin Mo says: I’m nineteen years old today! (the actress is thirty-one.) How is all of these things just not real? How are these just a trial? And also, you were only with me all this time waiting for me to die, weren’t you! You were only waiting for Ling Xi!
That’s not fair and that’s not true.
Jiu Chen says: Be good.
Lin Mo says: I’ll do it. I’ll give it all up to you.
And awww, it’s some acting. Jiu Chen has to swallow back his tears. But, more importantly, Jingxiu is trying to rush over and then collapses. Oh no. Dude, you’d better come back out of this OK.
So Jiu Chen has had to see his beloved die in his arms twice. Lin Mo says: remember the mortal girl who made clothes for you and cooked for you and was willing to marry you. Her name was Lin Mo. She’s not the same as Ling Xi! Don’t get it wrong.
Jiu Chen is making undignified mucus-snorting sounds in the background.)
Jingxiu crawls up, weeping, but it’s too late. GIVE HIM HIS LIFE BACK!
So the demon king gets stuffed back into his portal….and then there’s an explosion and a bit of the dark goes into Yuan Tong. Not that we didn’t expect that.
But, back at the south pole! Oh please yes! Ling Xi launches out of the cauldron! She’s back! YEAH! Her magic bracelet goes back to her! She has also powered up to “high god” status. The old guy at the door tells her that it was all Jiu Chen’s doing. But she just wants to go home. She’s being very calm and controlled. This isn’t Chatty Ling Xi any more, I guess. (Also, the bird she turns into looks like an ostrich, which isn’t all that cool, heh.)
Meanwhile, back at the Demon Tower, Si Ming and Teacher are able to take back Jiu Chen’s heart, finally. So…except for the fact that she’s broken one guy’s heart and might not be really happy with Jiu Chen killing her a second time on the other hand, it’s a happy ending?! (there are ten more episodes to go.)
Meanwhile, Jiu Chen is at home, passed out–waiting for the heart transplant to arrive. All his buddies are there, worrying. He doesn’t have much time and Teacher is taking a while….but he arrives just in time. (Well, actually, he arrives just after time, but seriously, there’s ten more episodes to go.)
Back in Peach Blossom Forest, Plaint Fairy is picking mushrooms for soup for Qing Yao to make her feel better.
Junior Fox Bro says: …I’ll help.
Ling Xi wooshes over to pay her respects to Medicine Dad’s tablet. (her hair is looking especially pretty.) She says: Dad, I’m back.
Junior lurches in, shell-shocked. They give each other a siblingly greeting. (“Ling Xi!” “Stinky boy!”)
But, after, are catching up outside on the Qing Yao/Yun Feng affair. Ling Xi didn’t realize things would be so exciting while she was gone. Junior is feeling rather overworked, running Peach Blossom Forest all on his own.
Ling Xi has changed, he observed. Time and calamities change people, she responds. I’m lucky–I’ve had both.
Oh boy. Qing Yao is at Yun Feng’s statue, brushing it down with a cloth. Man, that’d be kind of creepy and pathetic if he wasn’t actually still in there. But QY is at least happy to see her.
Meanwhile, Si Ming is brooding some more on the stairs. Shi San comes over to sit by him. They’re missing Yun Feng, and Jiu Chen is in bad shape…Fuyun Hall is a cold, empty place. Shi San just wants to know, if Ling Xi is alive, why she hasn’t come back?–and she tells Si Ming that if he dies, she’ll just die, too. It’d be too boring in Heaven without him. (“Can you be more optimistic?”) But if she dies, he can forget about her. Because she’s just annoying anyway. So Si Ming pulls her head down onto his shoulder and gives her a side-hug. Aw. (She’s about a foot taller than him.)
Qing Yao asks Ling Xi why she hasn’t gone to see Jiu Chen yet. LX doesn’t know. QY gives her a rundown on all the things that Jiu Chen has done for her, and gently scolds her for not going to see him first of all. LX avoids the question. Aw, Ling Xi says: for Yun Feng, a thousand years of stone and lightning torture is just about fair for getting Qing Yao’s devotion.
UH OH. Ling Xi has realized that she has a) greatly enhanced power, b) grudges to fulfill. Not good, girl.
Meanwhile, Jiu Chen wakes up–alone. He ignores his (very happy) maids and heads off to a cave somewhere. Oh, to see Teacher. He’s ready to apologize and face his punishments, now.
Teacher says: you were never sentimental…what’s gotten into you today? Were you ever going to not listen to me and do what I said? This was both of your trials. Have you both passed?
Jiu Chen says: Yes, everything has passed.
Teacher says: Well, did she come home yet?
Jiu Chen says: No.
Teacher says:…well, then, you shouldn’t go see her, either.
(Don’t listen to him Jiu Chen!)
Meanwhile, Thunder is back at the usual place, placing a complaint against Jiu Chen for, blah blah blah.
The Emperor merely asks how the demon king is doing now. Well..uh, he’s dead. Well, isn’t that a good thing?
Thunder blusters: how come Ling Xi didn’t die when Jiu Chen personally executed her, then?!
And then! A report comes in! Ling Xi from Peach Blossom Forest is asking for an audience!
Yuan Tong goes bug-eyed. AW YES.
Si Ming is wandering up in the background…he spots her and then goes off in another direction. HEH.
The Emperor greets her: she has removed her demonic aura and is welcome.
Ling Xi then calls out Thunder: what laws has she broken, exactly?
He says: hey, shut up.
She says: hey, shouldn’t you be explaining things to me, your junior?
He says: you broke the law by deceiving us when you were supposed to die!
She says: what law did I break by surviving?
He says: you had demon aura!
She says: And that means I deserve to die?
He says: OF COURSE IT DOES!
She says: I don’t have it any more. Still need me to die?
He says: Uh…
Ling Xi says: I’ve always lived and seen other things live, animals, mayflies. I’ve never harmed anyone and I never will. I begged the God of War to help me live. Is that a crime?
The Emperor says: Oh, you came to plead for Jiu Chen, did you?
Ling Xi says: The Emperor is a benevolent and reasonable person. Very different from other deities.
(Thunder says: HMPH!)
The Emperor says: I knew about the plan, Ling Xi. (Actually, it was his plan all along.)
He goes down to speak directly to Ling Xi: she was a very critical key to the plans of the demon tribe. The other deities were not willing to take the chance on endangering others. But he and Jiu Chen were. She has now gained blessings out of misfortunes.–and now she is a high god. (Yuan Tong looks REALLY UPSET.) But! She must not make mistakes or hold grudges…that would be bad.
Ling Xi says: am I still going to be punished?
The Emperor says: There is nothing to be punished for. You basically committed the opposite of a crime.
Ling Si says: what about Jiu Chen?!
The Emperor says: He also helped you to not commit crimes. He’ll be rewarded.
Ling Xi says: Well, now that that’s over, I do have one other thing to report…I want to accuse one person of a crime. Yuan Tong.
(PLEASE just execute her this time.)
Meanwhile, Si Ming is rushing over to Jiu Chen to report.
Ling Xi accuses Yuan Tong of three crimes: killing the guards and framing Qing Yao, killing Medicine Dad (Thunder says: she’s already been punished for these),–but also: for having an evil heart and killing her subordinates and framing Qing Yao and Yun Feng for it!
Yuan Tong is panicking. And Ling Xi calls her out on it! Aw hell yeah.
And she even dares to say that her conscience is clear!
Ling Xi: “You really will not shed a tear until you see your coffin.”
But Ling Xi has gotten back the recording device that shows Yuan Tong ordering her subordinates to advance into the demon mist. Oh, did she repair it with her magic cauldron? (Yep. Qing Yao had the pieces of the recording device and Ling Xi put them back together.)
Yuan Tong collapses.
Outside, the military bros are asking Ling Xi if she wants by any chance to go see Jiu Chen…? And, if she’s really a high god, does she want to spar? Thunder and his entourage are scowling past.
And, at this point, Jiu Chen and Si Ming arrive.
Stare.
Stare.
Cry stare.
Gulp stare.
Soundtrack swells.
Walk slowly forward and stare.
(LOL, one of the other old guys pulls Thunder out of Ling Xi’s way.)
Stare at each other from kissing range.
STARE.
JUST KISS ALREADY YOU GUYS.
STAAAAAAAAARE
FREEZE FRAME
(Couldn’t you guys at least kiss before the episode ends?)
Riders of Skaith 