Sword and Beloved (2025)

Sword and Beloved – 天地剑心 (2025), starring Cheng Yi and Li Yitong, is a Chinese wuxia/fantasy drama set in a world of humans and demons.

We came to watch Sword and Beloved after watching the wuxia/fantasy/transmigration drama, The Journey of Legend (2025)—a drama of Cheng Yi’s which we found to be a good watch. We loved the dual characters Cheng Yi played there. However, we hoped for a happy ending for Cheng Yi’s characters. So, we came into Sword and Beloved wondering if it could give us a happy ending. However, Cheng Yi’s character in Sword and Beloved had ended in the same way as his characters in The Journey of Legend. That had us go onto watching another of Cheng Yi’s dramas, Mysterious Lotus Casebook (2023)—a wuxia and mystery drama. The ending for this character had also ended in the same way as his character(s) in The Journey of Legend and Sword and Beloved.

The wuxia/fantasy/romance drama, Immortal Samsara (2022), is where we first came across Cheng Yi. It’s been some time since we watched Immortal Samsara. We remember thoroughly enjoying Immortal Samsara. We loved his character there, was very much satisfied with the plot, and we loved the relationship developments there. We remember it to have a happy ending for Immortal Samsara because we remember being satisfied with how it ended. However, checking out the last episode of Immortal Samsara again, we realise we remembered it wrong. The character Cheng Yi played in Immortal Samsara had also ended in the same way as his character(s) in The Journey of Legend, Sword and Beloved, and Mysterious Lotus Casebook.

From the selection of Cheng Yi dramas we chose to watch, each drama were good watches, but a happy ending for Cheng Yi’s character was something we couldn’t find.

We found Cheng Yi’s character in Sword and Beloved, Wangquan Fugui, a lot more interesting and relatable after watching the drama’s prequel, Love in Pavilion (2025). The first episode showing Wangquan Fugui as a threatening force for demons came across more strongly and we understood why Wangquan Fugui was referred to as ‘The Soldier’. We felt the loneliness in Wangquan Fugui’s character as well. This made the companionship the female lead character, Qingtong (Li Yitong), gave to Wangquan Fugui sweet.

The story in Sword and Beloved is twenty years later from the events in Love in Pavilion. Wangquan Fugui’s father, Wangquan Hongye, is the chief of an organisation called, Yiqi Alliance. Yiqi Alliance consists of human clans that oversee the peace between humans and demons. Twenty years ago, Wangquan Fugui’s father had led a group of elite fighters from prestigious families. The group was known as The Masked Group which consisted of his closest friends, family, and allies which Wangquan Fugui’s father gathered when he needed them in missions and battles against demons. The Masked Group ceased to exist when Wangquan Fugui’s father led them in an enormous battle against the formidable and evil being, Black Fox.

Black Fox is a fox demon with origins coming from a tree seed known as a grief tree seed of a place called, Tushan. Black Fox had an affinity to evil and death as she was born from the world’s hate. It’s Black Fox’s affinity to evil and death that the Tushan elders believed she would destroy the world in the future. They confined Black Fox to the Heartbreak Cliff of Tushan and gave her a grief tree seed. The hope is that Black Fox would nurture a grief tree with the power of love. If she could, the elders would let her out of confinement. However, Black Fox used her hatred to nurture a black grief tree which she then started to gather the world’s hate to feed the tree and provide Black Fox her power, the power of hate.

Black Fox’s power is sustained through manipulating those harbouring hate and resentment, and even regret, to darken hearts and minds, and bring them to be an extension of her power.

Wangquan Fugui’s father has the ambition to stop Black Fox from materialising and descending onto the world. Due to that ambition twenty years ago, Wangquan Fugui’s father devastatingly lost his closest friends, a family member, and allies in The Masked Group as each of them got manipulated by Black Fox. They each turned on each other and killed each other. Wangquan Fugui’s father was the only one in The Masked Group who survived. He disabled Black Fox and allowed a period of peace in the world. This was achieved with the assistance of Dongfang Huaizhu—Wangquan Fugui’s mother—where Wangquan Fugui’s father used a technique known as the heaven-and-earth strike with the Wangquan sword and cut down Black Fox’s black grief tree which cut off the source of Black Fox’s power.

Wangquan Fugui’s father also lost his wife, Wangquan Fugui’s mother, not too long after that battle with Black Fox. Wangquan Fugui’s mother was injured in a fight against a power-hungry senior disciple of the Dongfang family. This senior disciple was hungry for power. He wanted to be the head of the Dongfang family. When Wangquan Fugui’s mother didn’t choose to be with him, he wanted to see there was no hope of future generations for the Dongfang family. Injured, Wangquan Fugui’s mother’s life force was diminishing when she chose to transfer her spiritual power to the unborn Wangquan Fugui in her stomach so that she could not only give birth to him safely, but also give the world hope of peace in the world with affording Wangquan Fugui her Dongfang family’s spiritual power. This sees Wangquan Fugui to have both the spiritual powers of the Dongfang family and the Wangquan family and become a demon-killing soldier.

Because of these past events that Wangquan Fugui’s father experienced, and Wangquan Fugui’s father keeping his promise to Wangquan Fugui’s mother to raise their son as a demon-killing soldier, Wangquan Fugui has a life consisting of only training and heading out in his demon-slaying palanquin to kill demons. He is also constantly reminded of his need to unleash the heaven-and-earth strike.

The heaven-and-earth strike is a powerful technique which requires the exchange of the striker’s life force to strike. Wangquan Fugui isn’t able to master the heaven-and-earth strike yet and Wangquan Fugui’s father sees it to be because Wangquan Fugui has unnecessary emotions, attachments, and has a soft heart. Wangquan Fugui’s inability to master the heaven-and-earth strike aren’t because of these things. Being The Soldier who draws his sword and kills demons indiscriminately is the reason he can’t master the strike. Wangquan Fugui likens killing demons to be snow covering his heart. This unsettled feeling has Wangquan Fugui unable to find his ‘heart of sword’. With each mission, however, Wangquan Fugui finds his heart of the sword, strengthening his blade and going towards mastering the heaven-and-earth strike.

Wangquan Fugui spends sixteen out of the twenty-four hours in a day training in his residence, Cold Pool. What Wangquan Fugui longs to do is go on journeys to see beautiful views such as those Qingtong has seen on her assignments.

Qingtong is a low-level spider demon from a demon intelligence organisation called, Silk Cave. Qingtong is simply known as the number, 12580, until Wangquan Fugui gives Qingtong her name. Qingtong’s biggest wish after knowing Wangquan Fugui is to accompany him in travelling the world to see beautiful sceneries. However, humans and demons don’t walk the same path.

In Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong’s first encounter at East City, Wangquan Fugui is dispatched to kill a lantern demon king, Huodou, wrecking havoc at the location. Qingtong is there on a spy assignment to gather information on Wangquan Fugui. Wangquan Fugui should have killed Qingtong, but he lets her go because of the kindness she showed when his people found a dying man having his bleeding stopped with spider silk and he is saved because of her kindness.

Qingtong knows the feeling of desperately wanting to live. As a low-level and insignificant spider demon working under a demon king such as her Silk Cave master, Madam Yin, she’s not only fearful and begging for her life, she also watches her fellow low-level and insignificant spider demons fearful and begging for their lives because they failed their assignment.

12581 (Wang Hongyi) is a low-level and timid spider demon that Qingtong frequently worries about being killed when he fails his assignments. 12581, named Qingcheng when Qingtong gives him his name, is born in a different brood than Qingtong, but they grew up together, so Qingtong sees Qingcheng as her younger brother who is important to her.

Bringing Qingtong to Wangquan Fugui’s residence is when Qingcheng fails his assignment of getting inside Wangquan Manor and gathering information on Wangquan Fugui. To save Qingcheng from the punishment of death, Qingtong volunteers herself to infiltrate Wangquan Manor to complete the assignment.

Boarding the Wangquan cargo ship to get to Wangquan Manor, Qingtong doesn’t get discovered until the ship docks at port. She gets discovered by the chief female disciple of Wangquan Manor, Feng Tingyun. Though Feng Tingyun initially goes to kill Qingtong, Qingtong convinces Feng Tingyun to temporarily halt killing her with offering to help mend the hem of Feng Tingyun’s dress that got torn off during the strike she made at her. After mending this dress, Qingtong negotiates sparing her life. She asks Feng Tingyun if she has other dresses she needs mending. Qingtong fails with this as Feng Tingyun says the dress she mended is an exception that she can use to spare her life temporarily. Qingtong tries another way. The observation Qingtong makes on the things around Feng Tingyun’s room, Qingtong guesses Feng Tingyun doesn’t have many dresses. She offers to make any beautiful dress she wants. Qingtong successfully convinces Feng Tingyun to let her go with this. Feng Tingyun does have a dress in mind. The dress Feng Tingyun wants Qingtong to make is the one she wants to wear on Wangquan Fugui’s birthday which is in three days’ time.

Qingtong needs to get into Wangquan Fugui’s residence to gather intelligence and Feng Tingyun provides the necessary pass to get through the barrier that’s around Wangquan Fugui’s residence. Feng Tingyun also provides Qingtong an above board way to visit: In the past, Feng Tingyun failed to get Wangquan Fugui to open and read her letters. Feng Tingyun takes up Qingtong’s offer to help her deliver her letter to Wangquan Fugui this year which requested Wangquan Fugui to meet up with her on his birthday.

Qingtong makes her presence known to Wangquan Fugui with her clumsy delivery of Feng Tingyun’s letter. Recognising Qingtong to be the little spider at East City, Wangquan Fugui is only curious to know why she’s at his residence and how she got in with the barrier around his residence. Qingtong explains how she got through and she shows him Feng Tingyun’s letter. Wangquan Fugui lets Qingtong be and walks away.

Wangquan Fugui’s refusal to receive and read the letter allows Qingtong to be at his residence for days as Qingtong keeps trying to get him to open and read it. The day before Wangquan Fugui’s birthday, Qingtong ends up opening the letter to read the contents and reminds Wangquan Fugui to meet Feng Tingyun. On Wangquan Fugui’s birthday, Qingtong hears from a heartbroken Feng Tingyun that Wangquan Fugui sent a messenger telling her to return home and spend the time practicing her fighting skills.

Wangquan Fugui’s birthday has never been celebrated. It’s the day of his mother’s death anniversary. Wangquan Fugui’s birthday passed with his father enraged when Wangquan Fugui wanted to know the story behind the Jinlan mask—the one Wangquan Fugui’s mother gave to Wangquan Fugui’s father. Wangquan Fugui wore the mask to find the answer. It brought Wangquan Fugui’s father to remember the mission he led The Masked Group in to eliminate Black Fox which got them all killed. Wangquan Fugui got placed in a stranglehold and Wangquan Fugui’s father’s extreme guilt was on display for Wangquan Fugui to see. He got told by his father that the reason he lost his family and friends in that battle against Black Fox was precisely because of the emotions that Wangquan Fugui needs to get rid of.

The day after Wangquan Fugui’s birthday, Qingtong is asked to leave. Qingtong hasn’t done much in the way of gathering intelligence in the three days she’s been at Wangquan Fugui’s residence. However, Wangquan Fugui comes to the conclusion that Qingtong must be on a spy assignment for Silk Cave because many past Silk Cave demons have come to gather intelligence on him or to kill him.

Qingtong can’t leave without intelligence to report back to Madam Yin. It’ll mean death for her and Qingcheng. Therefore, Qingtong desperately tries to negotiate with Wangquan Fugui to be allowed to keep staying at his residence. In the few days at his residence, Qingtong has found Wangquan Fugui has an interest in maps. She asks Wangquan Fugui if there’s a place he wishes to visit. She offers to weave this place in a brocade painting if he allows her to stay and complete her assignment.

Immediately after saying this, Qingtong shows she’s feeling unwell. She’s light-headed and ends up passing out. Qingtong had sustained an injury from a male spider throwing his strength at her earlier in the day when he came looking for her intelligence to credit himself with it, but Qingtong’s intelligence was just Wangquan Fugui spending his birthday alone. Qingtong comes around. Wangquan Fugui has tended to her injury and he’s prepared her a medicine bath which she bathes in on his study desk.

With the question about whether there is a view Wangquan Fugui would like to see, he does have one. It’s Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai. Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai was where Wangquan Fugui’s father and mother met each other and where their love began from. Qingtong says to Wangquan Fugui she doesn’t know this place called Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai. However, she has been to a place where there is a bamboo forest by the river and a pavilion. Wangquan Fugui has Qingtong weave this scenery. With this, Qingtong continues to stay at his residence until she completes the brocade painting.

Wangquan Fugui’s days go a bit differently than usual with Qingtong there. Immediately after Wangquan Fugui agrees to allow Qingtong to continue staying at his residence, he has to make a paper boat for Qingtong to sleep in because she says a spider needs to eat well, sleep well, and be in a good mood to produce the most beautiful silk. Wangquan Fugui’s morning comes with a greeting from her and a question wondering about whether he has just come back from training. In the evening, he gets irritated when Qingtong gives him her opinion of how she finds him and Feng Tingyun to be a good match. He’s quietly amused with Qingtong when she scuttles away from his annoyance.

In this short time being around Wangquan Fugui, Qingtong picks up on Wangquan Fugui’s dislike of being The Soldier. When Qingtong asks Wangquan Fugui to have a cup of tea and out of habit she uses The Soldier to address him, she expresses to Wangquan Fugui of her thoughtlessness of addressing him as The Soldier. The cup of tea Wangquan Fugui initially rejected is accepted and received.

Wangquan Fugui becomes accustomed to Qingtong’s company and he seems to find her company good company. As Wangquan Fugui studies, Qingtong quietly brightens his desk with a flower in a vase. When Qingtong explains what terrain he can see at certain locations on a map, he’s attentive and interested. The request for candy that Qingtong made when she was injured gets granted and she happily receives and eats it.

The brocade painting Qingtong promised to weave for Wangquan Fugui is finally completed. The painting is one that brings Wangquan Fugui to display a rare smile on his lips and he describes the painting to be one he just loves to look at.

Qingtong has the intelligence she needs to save herself and Qingcheng. It’s time for her to leave. Before Qingtong leaves, with her expressing gratitude to Wangquan Fugui for giving her the chance to survive, a wild chrysanthemum in hand, Qingtong provides Wangquan Fugui insight into the way she, a low-level and insignificant demon, lives everyday. She tells Wangquan Fugui that low-level and insignificant demons like herself all want to live, but they serve under demon kings. With expressing that more powerful and significant demons like demon kings get killed by him, Qingtong expresses how vulnerable to death low-level and insignificant demons are. Low-level and insignificant demons such as herself get easily killed by something as ordinary as when a horse comes by. She is like the wild chrysanthemum she holds in her hand. It can be trampled to death at anytime. However, she tells Wangquan Fugui she goes through life happily and likens this to the wild chrysanthemum she holds. Concluding, Qingtong hopes Wangquan Fugui can be happier and live happily as well. These words from Qingtong has Wangquan Fugui resolute in never killing demons casually again and further question whether demons must be killed.

The intelligence Qingtong brings to Madam Yin is Wangquan Fugui’s daily routine, diet, and habits. Most importantly, she has information on Wangquan Fugui’s sword technique which was made possible to obtain with Wangquan Fugui deliberately slowing down his moves during his training in the courtyard for Qingtong to watch during her stay at his residence. This highly impresses Madam Yin.

The next time Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong meet is when Yiqi Alliance responds to a request for help from a family called the Xin family. The Xin family has been pushed into a land of miasma by a newly-appointed raccoon dog demon king called Fu Li. While Wangquan Fugui goes there to eliminate the threat of Fu Li and her demon subordinates, Qingtong is on a mission to obtain the winged spirit pearl that Fu Li has within her body. The winged spirit pearl is a useful item to Silk Cave for its power that can transform low-level demons into human form.

At the time Wangquan Fugui arrives onto the scene to deal with Fu Li, Qingtong was already severely injured. She didn’t stand a chance to obtain the winged spirit pearl when a simple step of a raccoon dog demon subordinate catapulted her and slammed her into a tree and brought her to lie injured on a branch. Wangquan Fugui easily subdues Fu Li and her demon subordinates. The winged spirit pearl Silk Cave wants is then in Wangquan Fugui’s possession when he extracts it from Fu Li’s body. Fu Li is eliminated in this way.

As Wangquan Fugui heads back into his demon-slaying palanquin, he senses Qingtong’s demon aura and finds her. He finds Qingtong’s injuries to be critical and survival is bleak. However, Wangquan Fugui has the winged spirit pearl. Wangquan Fugui does two things for Qingtong at this point: He refines his spiritual power with the winged spirit pearl and converts it into demon power to revive Qingtong. He then gives Qingtong the opportunity to transform into human form with offering the winged spirit pearl to Qingtong. After Qingtong confirms she wishes to take human form because it will allow her to protect Qingcheng better, Wangquan Fugui gives up ten years of his life to transform her into human form with the winged spirit pearl.

Qingtong is no longer a small and insignificant spider demon in size, but there are still difficulties she faces every day as a low-level spider demon. Wangquan Fugui agrees to teach her some sword skills so she isn’t so easily threatened with Qingcheng’s life whenever she defies Madam Yin’s orders.

Beginning from this kindness Wangquan Fugui has towards harmless demons, and a view seeing good and kind demons to be no different to humans with the same qualities, Qingtong becomes someone Wangquan Fugui saves and protects time and again.

A situation of Qingtong betraying Wangquan Fugui’s trust arises. Qingtong had no choice. She was again threatened with Qingcheng’s life. Qingtong receives an order from Madam Yin to poison Wangquan Fugui with the seven bitterness poison (a poison that messes up qi and blood and drains spiritual power) to weaken his fighting ability. Failing to carry out the order results in killing Qingcheng. So, Qingtong poisons Wangquan Fugui and she disappears from his residence.

The betrayal of Wangquan Fugui’s trust isn’t a betrayal of his trust. Rather, it’s part of a plan Qingtong has to first satisfy Madam Yin to save Qingcheng then go obtain the antidote for Wangquan Fugui.

To have the best chance of Madam Yin giving her the antidote, Qingtong poisoned herself with the seven bitterness poison. After reporting to Madam Yin of the task having successfully been carried out, she makes a request for the antidote with a story of being also poisoned from testing all the food Wangquan Fugui ate. Madam Yin verifies the truth of Qingtong having been poisoned with her powers and gets information Wangquan Fugui has been poisoned. Qingtong obtains the antidote. After obtaining the antidote, Qingtong transforms Qingcheng into human form with her powers and then takes him with her and escapes from Silk Cave. While she directs Qingcheng to head to safety at Deer Village in Eastern Regions, she returns to Wangquan Manor to hand Wangquan Fugui the antidote.

By the time Qingtong makes it to Wangquan Manor, she’s not doing well. Her health gets a further hit with Feng Tingyun being unmerciful this time, furious with her for poisoning Wangquan Fugui. Qingtong’s determination in getting the antidote to Wangquan Fugui gets her away briefly, but Feng Tingyun catches up with her at Wangquan Fugui’s residence. Qingtong’s end would have come at this time with Feng Tingyun’s sword set to kill, but Wangquan Fugui intercepts the strike.

No longer pursued and safely in Wangquan Fugui’s residence with Wangquan Fugui before her, Qingtong asks Wangquan Fugui to quickly take the antidote she has for him. However, Wangquan Fugui wants to confirm whether the reason she poisoned him was because she had been threatened with her brother’s life. As we know, this is the case and Qingtong confirms it. Wangquan Fugui wants to know why she didn’t let him know this was the situation she was in. Qingtong explains letting him know would see her brother killed. She urges him to take the antidote. Seeing the evidence of the effort it took her to get the antidote to him with it extended towards him in hands covered in blood, Wangquan Fugui accepts it. After Wangquan Fugui accepts the antidote, Qingtong stops holding on and collapses from the effects of the poison.

The one and only antidote in the world for the seven bitterness poison that Qingtong obtained from Madam Yin for Wangquan Fugui Wangquan Fugui chooses to give it to Qingtong. There is another way Wangquan Fugui can remove the seven bitterness poison from his system. He has his cousin, Quan Rumu, assist him in sealing his spiritual veins to remove it.

Feng Tingyun was in disbelief and angered by Wangquan Fugui when he saved instead of killed Qingtong when he intercepted her strike after Qingtong poisoned him. She threatened to report him to his father. However, she didn’t ended up reporting Wangquan Fugui. The incident brings Feng Tingyun to believe Qingtong is the person Wangquan Fugui likes and she goes to have him tell her why it’s Qingtong he likes.

Feng Tingyun has liked Wangquan Fugui since nine after he saved her from demons. Though she likes him, she knows his feelings towards her is not like. Wangquan Fugui corrects Feng Tingyun’s understanding of his treatment towards Qingtong: The way he treats Qingtong is simply sympathy towards her situation. Feng Tingyun doesn’t believe it is and directly asks Wangquan Fugui whether he likes Qingtong. Wangquan Fugui seems to have felt it to be unnecessary to explain his thoughts and feelings regarding Qingtong to Feng Tingyun when he doesn’t give an answer. The nonresponse has Feng Tingyun remind Wangquan Fugui of humans and demons walking on different paths. Wangquan Fugui’s response to this is saying he would handle things in his own way.

Quan Rumu, Wangquan Fugui’s cousin, is also Wangquan Fugui’s one and only friend who is like a confidant to him also. Quan Rumu returned to Dingling Mountain to participate in a tournament called, The Blue Sky Assembly, which Yiqi Alliance holds each year to find top fighting talents. Before then, since thirteen years old, Quan Rumu has been living in a desert location known as Western Regions where humans and demons live and is closest to the area known as ‘outside the circle’ where Black Fox is located.

The topic of Qingtong becomes their topic of conversation after Wangquan Fugui got severely scolded by his father for heading to Mount Baiwu without authorisation and went against his responsibilities as The Soldier. Before Qingtong returned to his residence and allowed him to confirm she hadn’t betrayed his trust, Wangquan Fugui went to Mount Baiwu, home to Silk Cave, in his demon-slaying palanquin to find her to get answers from her for poisoning him. On this trip, Wangquan Fugui didn’t find Qingtong. He instead encountered Madam Yin and a group of demons under her control. Madam Yin had come to kill Wangquan Fugui. The outcome was Madam Yin underestimating the strength of Wangquan Fugui in his poisoned state. Wangquan Fugui gave the group of demons under Madam Yin’s control the choice to continue fighting him or leave the area when he released the seal that kept them under Madam Yin’s control. The demons chose to leave, leaving Madam Yin to fight Wangquan Fugui herself. The outcome of this fight was that Wangquan Fugui was still too strong for Madam Yin to kill and she retreated.

Hearing Wangquan Fugui had been scolded by his father for letting demons go instead of killing them, Quan Rumu asks Wangquan Fugui whether he has figured out what he’ll do with Qingtong. Quan Rumu hopes Wangquan Fugui can do whatever he wishes—whether that’s travelling around the world or choosing to stay at home. Doing whatever he wishes to do isn’t something he can do. Wangquan Fugui explains why he says this: He has responsibilities as The Soldier. He needs to protect Yiqi Alliance. Indulging in a relationship isn’t what he can do. Also, he finds Qingtong circling around him to be like a shackle restricting her freedom. The plan Wangquan Fugui has for Qingtong is for her to find her own path.

Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong go their separate way after an assignment at Peach Village in Dingling Mountain where Wangquan Fugui is tasked with bringing back the village chief, Zhang Qi, to investigate a demonic drug called chakuwa.

Chakuwa had made an appearance at The Blue Sky Assembly in a group of assassins that interrupted the event. The assassins were part of a plan to kill both Wangquan Fugui’s father and Wangquan Fugui with the goal of taking over Yiqi Alliance. The mastermind was Quan Rumu’s father, Quan Jingting.

Before The Blue Sky Assembly, Quan Jingting sought Wangquan Shouyi’s cooperation. Wangquan Shouyi is an elder in the Wangquan family who isn’t on the good and moral side. He ran an establishment called Xiyun Hall which was said to have formerly been a tobacco place frequented by disheartened Yiqi Alliance members. It was a place that acquired and sold evil medicine. For Quan Jingting’s goal of taking over Yiqi Alliance, Quan Rumu needed to be the top fighter at The Blue Sky Assembly. This brought Quan Jingting to go to Wangquan Shouyi to obtain the dragon tempering pill. The dragon tempering pill is something that can increase a person’s power and makes them have a thirst to kill.

Quan Rumu had no interest in participating in The Blue Sky Assembly nor wanted to take the dragon tempering pill. In order to force Quan Rumu to cooperate, however, Quan Jingting threatened Quan Rumu with the lives of his Western Regions friends. Quan Rumu consumed the dragon tempering pill and he participated in The Blue Sky Assembly.

Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong helped Quan Rumu save his friends who were locked up in a dungeon in Xiyun Hall. Quan Jingting had predicted this. A musk demon king was ready and waiting to deal with Wangquan Fugui. A musk demon king is said to be difficult to deal with. It has the ability to clone itself. In order to kill the clones, the original musk demon king must be found first. On top of this, a musk demon king also produces a poisonous miasma that throws off senses and makes it hard to control a sword.

Wangquan Fugui managed to find and free Quan Rumu’s friends from captivity, but escaping from the musk demon king was tricky with its special ability and poisonous miasma. Fortunately, Qingtong had a hunch something felt odd about a Xiyun Hall dancer (the musk demon king) when she first encountered her. Qingtong had placed a mark on her wrist with her gossamer and the original musk demon king could be found because of this foresight. Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong escaped Xiyun Hall.

Quan Jingting’s plan to kill Wangquan Fugui therefore failed and his plan to kill Wangquan Fugui’s father also failed when Wangquan Fugui, alive and well, returned to The Blue Sky Assembly and prevented Quan Rumu’s sword from reaching and killing his father. The effects of the dragon tempering pill and a mind-controlling talisman that Quan Jingting used had turned Quan Rumu into an assassin. Quan Rumu was brought out of this state when Wangquan Fugui summoned his mother’s The Purest Sun Flame—a technique which Wangquan Fugui had struggled to summon up until this point—to eject the dragon tempering pill from Quan Rumu’s body and the chaos at The Blue Sky Assembly ended.

Failing the assassination attempt of Wangquan Fugui’s father, Quan Jingting sought after a scapegoat. He chose Wangquan Shouyi. He directed Wangquan Shouyi to sneak an attack on Wangquan Fugui’s father from behind. This allowed Quan Jingting to openly kill Wangquan Shouyi with a fist to his chest and wash his hands off from the assassins that appeared at The Blue Sky Assembly. Providing false evidence for Quan Rumu’s assassination attempt on Wangquan Fugui’s father, Quan Jingting sneakily transferred possession of the mind-controlling talisman to Wangquan Shouyi during this time. This left only the dragon tempering pill needing explanation. Quan Jingting saw no issues admitting to having gone to Wangquan Shouyi to obtain this dragon tempering pill. He explained it as his eagerness to see Quan Rumu win the competition. Quan Jingting received punishment of going to the Wangquan sword tomb and spending his time guarding it. His cultivation got destroyed by Wangquan Fugui with Wangquan Fugui suspecting Quan Jingting to have been the mastermind behind the deployment of the assassins who were under the influence of chakuwa.

The village chief of Peach Village, Zhang Qi, is the master of the Zhang family. Zhang Qi is told to be the successor of Zhang Zheng. Zhang Zheng was one of the allies in Wangquan Fugui’s father’s The Masked Group. Zhang Zheng died fighting in the battle against Black Fox outside the circle. After Zhang Zheng’s death, Zhang Qi inherited Zhang Zheng’s title of The Black Sword. Zhang Qi wields the sword of that name. He was also someone who guided Wangquan Fugui’s father when Wangquan Fugui’s father lost his heart of sword after the battle against Black Fox.

Peach Village was once shrouded in miasma and was a desolate land where no being lived. Clearing the area of miasma took Zhang Qi seven years to link together twelve talismans that repelled miasma. After clearing the miasma, Zhang Qi built up the Peach Village community where the humans and demons he saved could call it home. Peach Village is a place which doesn’t have any division between humans and demons. However, there is a demon hiding their true self. This demon doesn’t share the same enthusiasm for humans and demons coexisting peacefully. The community of Peach Village is simply a place for her to make chakuwa.

Chakuwa is told to be eggs of the ancient bird demon. The eggs are parasitic insects with characteristics of flower seeds where it can be planted into the soil and grow flowers. The chakuwa drug is produced when the parasitic insects enter a person’s body and absorb their life force. Around the village are chakuwa flowers in bloom. Flying through the air are the parasitic insects which enters the villagers’ systems.

A ghost-faced moth demon has been disguising herself as a pleasant-natured butterfly demon. She was saved by Zhang Qi during when Peach Village was an area not completely cleared of miasma. She goes by the name Fairy Qingli and she is Zhang Qi’s wife. She was formerly a lowly ghost-faced moth demon who endured endless filth and bullying to survive. Helping Fairy Qingli with the task of collecting chakuwa seeds and distributing them to the villagers to plant is a deer demon.

Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong arrives at Peach Village when a night event called The Night Peach Ceremony is being prepared. At the village centre, a dead peach blossom tree exists. On the night of the ceremony, Fairy Qingli makes the dead peach blossom tree appear to be blossoming with butterflies conjured up with magic, bringing a symbol of hope towards the villagers’ prayer for a world where there is no division between humans and demons and class, and a world where the killings of demons stopped. It is but a plan to drain the life force of the villagers to make the chakuwa drug.

Qingtong is someone who has their life force drained as she joined the villagers in the ceremony at the village centre. Wangquan Fugui had been lured away by the deer demon at the start of the ceremony. When Wangquan Fugui returns to the village centre, he finds everyone is unconscious and enveloped in web blankets. He finds Zhang Qi has become dark and possessed. Fairy Qingli had fed Zhang Qi the chakuwa drug and he’s come under her command.

Wangquan Fugui is brought into an ice barrier. The environment helps increase Zhang Qi’s power. Zhang Qi comes at Wangquan Fugui with attacks as Fairy Qingli sends a swarm of butterflies towards him and he gets immobilised in a cocoon-like encapsulation.

Qingtong seems to not be completely unconscious when she senses the situation Wangquan Fugui is in. She awakens herself and enters the ice barrier. Qingtong tries to snap Zhang Qi out of the mind control he’s in, but she isn’t powerful enough to do so and she gets flung away. At this moment, Wangquan Fugui awakens and breaks out of his encapsulation to extend his support to Qingtong.

Fairy Qingli reveals herself to be a ghost-faced moth demon to Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong. Qingtong questions Fairy Qingli about her lack of sincerity towards Zhang Qi’s kindness and love. Fairy Qingli expresses preferring the current dark and flawed Zhang Qi over the perfect and saintly Zhang Qi. Seeing as Fairy Qingli has a no regard for the weak and sincerity of others, Wangquan Fugui sends her towards a tree and pierces her with a sword through her chest. To return Zhang Qi to normal, Wangquan Fugui sends a knock at his chest to bring the chakuwa drug out of his body. The one to eliminate Fairy Qingli is Zhang Qi. He kills her with a swipe of his sword after he finds her mocking him for thinking there could be a world where humans and demons could coexist peacefully.

Wangquan Fugui’s mission to bring Zhang Qi back to Wangquan Manor is not completed. To protect Peach Village indefinitely from the corrosion of miasma and keep his dream alive, Zhang Qi has Wangquan Fugui assist him in creating a barrier that spreads out from the peach blossom tree at the village centre and extends around the radius of land of Peach Village. Zhang Qi sacrifices his life to create this barrier around Peach Village.

Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong go their separate ways after the mission at Peach Village. Before going their separate ways, Wangquan Fugui had taught Qingtong the last set of sword skills he promised to teach her and he gave her a parting gift of giving her his dust-seeker sword. This dust-seeker sword will become evidence for when Quan Jingting goes to convince everyone of Wangquan Fugui’s deviation from his responsibilities as The Soldier and drive him out of Yiqi Alliance.

Returning to Wangquan Manor, Wangquan Fugui is faced with his father’s disappointment in him again for allowing Peach Village to remain and be protected. Wangquan Fugui tries to have his father understand this stance he has towards not killing any and all demons and only killing demons when they deserved to be killed. His father can’t understand Wangquan Fugui’s stance: The Soldier is to kill demons. Finding his father unchanging in his views on demons and seeing The Soldier as someone that just kills demons, Wangquan Fugui talks back with seeing the idea of The Soldier as being what’s wrong when right and wrong isn’t being considered.

Wangquan Fugui’s words infuriates his father. He’s ordered to head back to Peach Village and kill the demons there. Wangquan Fugui continues to stand his ground. He finds himself to have carried out his mission at Peach Village with a clear conscience. He has no regrets. For this, Wangquan Fugui receives a slap across his face from his father. Hurt, Wangquan Fugui goes to dismiss himself, but he’s stopped from leaving and gets given an order to be punished by clan laws. The punishment he receives is forty lashes whilst hung on a tree. With Wangquan Fugui continuing to be defiant and not admitting any wrongdoing, he remains hanging on the tree and no one is allowed to let him down from the tree until he admits his wrongdoing.

Quan Jingting is someone Black Fox manipulated for some time. Even without Black Fox’s manipulation, he has been going down this path on his own already due to his greed for power.

Quan Jingting was exiled to Western Regions and was not allowed to bear the Wangquan family name for practicing dark magic with a demon core. This took place years in the past when Quan Rumu was thirteen years old. As the legitimate heir to the Wangquan family, Quan Jingting had resentment towards Wangquan Fugui’s father. Taisui, one of Black Fox’s little black fox clones inside the circle, gave Quan Jingting a way to be powerful. He was given knowledge of an incredible power known as True Dragon Power existing. From the time Quan Jingting was exiled and through to the time he showed up at Wangquan Manor to have Quan Rumu participate at The Blue Sky Assembly and masterminded the assassination attempt on Wangquan Fugui’s father, Quan Jingting has been working towards acquiring True Dragon Power.

True Dragon Power requires the gathering of dragon parts from a true dragon from the dragon clan. Quan Rumu’s backstory tells us Quan Jingting had obtained dragon parts from the mother of a true dragon. She was the mother of Long Weiyun. Long Weiyun’s mother was tortured to death by Quan Jingting. In order for Long Weiyun to have a chance to get her mother’s remains, she kidnapped Quan Rumu. However, she failed to threaten Quan Jingting when Quan Jingting is the type of father who doesn’t care about whether his child lived or died. In the eyes of Quan Jingting, Quan Rumu’s existence is only to serve him and his ambition. After Long Weiyun’s mother died, Quan Jingting went after Long Weiyun to acquire True Dragon Power, but it didn’t succeed.

One of the dragon parts needed for true dragon power is the dragon spine. The Wangquan family sword tomb which Quan Jingting was sent to guard after The Blue Sky Assembly event is where the dragon spine is. It has been made into a sword. With the help of Taisui, and killing his most loyal subordinate to obtain his blood to feed the dragon spine sword, Quan Jingting acquires the sword.

In a meeting where Ximen family elders go to Wangquan Manor to express their dissatisfaction towards Peach Village remaining in their territory, as the master of the dragon spine sword that’s filled with sounds of sorrow of ancestors, no one objects when Quan Jingting says he’s the one the ancestors have appointed to put things right. The matter which he will put right is Wangquan Fugui and the fear of Third Young Master Aolai’s prophecy coming true.

Third Young Master Aolai’s prophecy was left in a spiritual stone Third Young Master Aolai had left everyone. The spiritual stone was originally an item to be used in the mind battle part of The Blue Sky Assembly, but it was presented at the meeting after the assassination incident that occurred at The Blue Sky Assembly. The spiritual stone Third Young Master Aolai left them revealed a future where the heavenly gate was broken by thirteen heaven-and-earth strikes. This was done with the Wangquan sword and it unleashed world-destroying monsters outside the boundary. When the Yiqi Alliance members saw this, the person they saw the prophecy was referring to was Wangquan Fugui.

The prophecy concerned everyone at the time it was revealed and at this meeting they are concerned following finding Wangquan Fugui protecting Peach Village. The elder of the Ximen family offer Wangquan Fugui’s father a talisman called, Dustless, to help Wangquan Fugui rid worldly thoughts so he can be a merciless, emotionless, and peerless blade. Wangquan Fugui’s father rejects the offer. The Ximen family elders isn’t satisfied, but they don’t press on and give Wangquan Fugui’s father a day to give them a satisfactory solution.

Quan Jingting is urged by Taisui to do more. It has the way for him to make Wangquan Fugui unable to escape punishment. It’s providing the knowledge of Qingtong having spent time at Wangquan Fugui’s residence. Quan Jingting tracks Qingtong down on a path heading to Deer Village with some demons who lost their home. He captures her and brings her before everyone at Heaven and Earth Hall at Wangquan Manor to reveal her to be a demon who had kept Wangquan Fugui company at his residence. The evidence is the dust seeker sword in Qingtong’s possession.

Qingtong doesn’t allow Wangquan Fugui to be implicated. From how she came to be a human and entered Wangquan Manor to her reason for being in Wangquan Fugui’s residence and came to be in possession of the dust seeker sword, Qingtong says it was all to kill everyone in the Wangquan Manor. She stole the dust seeker sword to carry out this task. Now with her capture, Qingtong asks to be killed.

Wangquan Fugui’s father wants to grant Qingtong’s wish to be killed, but Quan Jingting needs Qingtong to remain as she is for the time being to accuse Wangquan Fugui to be having an affair with a demon. Qingtong is given rounds of electrical power from a talisman when she tries to wake everyone up to the fact that Quan Jingting is merely using them to do his dirty work in eliminating his enemies and is only concerned about personal revenge.

Though sympathetic and looking on uncomfortably at the torture Qingtong is receiving, Feng Tingyun show no indication of believing Qingtong’s words. Her empathy towards Qingtong’s situation does bring her to secretly send a butterfly spirit informing Wangquan Fugui about what’s happening with Qingtong in Heaven and Earth Hall while Quan Jingting brings out an undeniable evidence of the Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai brocade painting Qingtong weaved for Wangquan Fugui. Qingtong fails to explain the brocade painting and gets made unconscious from a final strike of electrical power.

Wangquan Fugui gets called in by his father to make him show he’s been falsely accused. Wangquan Fugui is given the Wangquan sword to kill Qingtong, but he asks to be allowed to let Qingtong go who’s already severely injured. The only thing Wangquan Fugui’s father wants Wangquan Fugui to do is kill Qingtong. Wangquan Fugui won’t. His defiance has his father judge him as having his judgement corrupted by Qingtong.

Wangquan Fugui seems to be growing tired of his father’s rigid judgement of demons. He asks his father whether he married his mother for her Dongfang blood to create a stronger soldier. He wants his father to know he isn’t a sword that kills demons without crime to their name, is good, and shows kindness. His frustration builds when he points the Wangquan sword at his father then sends the Wangquan sword towards a plaque in the hall. It pierces ‘demon’ in the words of the plaque ‘Kill all demons’. Wangquan Fugui can’t see any point in being The Soldier of Yiqi Alliance when he sees the Wangquan sword to make living beings homeless.

Wangquan Fugui chooses to leave Wangquan Manor and Yiqi Alliance. He takes Qingtong into his arms. As he does, Wangquan Fugui isn’t confident they’d get out alive, but asks the unconscious Qingtong whether she’d be willing to see the world with him if they manage to get out alive.

Quan Jingting makes it hard for Wangquan Fugui to make it out alive. No one opposes him when he commands the Yiqi Alliance disciples to bring a formation of swords to attack Wangquan Fugui, citing this to be Wangquan Fugui returning what he owes to the powerful families in Yiqi Alliance for raising him. A sea of swords descend towards Wangquan Fugui. For a time, the swords are deflected by the spiritual barrier Wangquan Fugui places around him and Qingtong. The shield weaken with each step Wangquan Fugui takes to leave Wangquan Manor. One sword penetrates the shield, grazing his face and comes very close to reaching Qingtong. The barrier ultimately breaks down and the swords start stabbing him from all directions, bringing him to come to a complete stop and on knees.

Wangquan Fugui isn’t moving and everyone feels he might be dead. An elder is concerned about the disgrace Yiqi Alliance will receive. He gives an order for someone to separate Qingtong from Wangquan Fugui. This order has Wangquan Fugui defiantly want to protect Qingtong. Not allowing anyone to touch Qingtong, he releases a powerful force from his body and stops those advancing towards them.

Wangquan Fugui makes a move to resume leaving, but Quan Jingting is persistent in stopping him from leaving and seeing him punished. The dragon spine sword goes into Wangquan Fugui’s back. As the dragon power brings Wangquan Fugui closer to dying, Wangquan Fugui’s mother’s voice tells him his life doesn’t end at this time. He still has spiritual blood in him. The Purest Sun Flame, Wangquan Fugui’s mother’s technique, activates. With the clash of the dragon power and his spiritual blood in his body, Wangquan Fugui’s hair changes white. Wangquan Fugui expels the dragon power from his system and transfers some spiritual power to Qingtong. The formation of swords is ordered again by Quan Jingting. With The Purest Flame, Quan Jingting and the disciples are no match for Wangquan Fugui this time. Wangquan Fugui’s father stops Wangquan Fugui from going to kill Quan Jingting.

Wangquan Fugui prepares to leave Wangquan Manor with Qingtong. He expresses to his father he has found his own path. The path he’s found is not the way of The Soldier when he sees the world to neither belong to humans or demons but to all living things.

No one can stop Wangquan Fugui from leaving Wangquan Manor now after he’s taken the ten thousand sword punishment. Quan Jingting tries to, ordering some men to pursue Wangquan Fugui at the sound of dissatisfaction from the Ximen family elder. They’re flung away and blocked by Butler Fei Tianqing. Feng Tingyun also joins Butler Fei to dissuade anyone who wishes to pursue. Wangquan Fugui’s father orders to let Wangquan Fugui leave, reasoning Wangquan Fugui has already received the punishment and the person in the prophecy can’t be Wangquan Fugui because he’s abandoned the Wangquan sword. Wangquan Fugui’s father letting Wangquan Fugui leave is also keeping the promise Wangquan Fugui’s mother had him make: Let Wangquan Fugui leave if he chooses to leave.

This incident is an additional dissatisfaction the Yiqi Alliance members has towards Wangquan Fugui’s father. Quan Jingting successfully becomes the head of the Wangquan family and Yiqi Alliance when he manages to convince everyone to feel the battle Wangquan Fugui’s father led their family members into fighting against Black Fox was nothing but a way for Wangquan Fugui’s father to kill them for his own ambition. The way in which Quan Jingting manages to remove Wangquan Fugui’s father from his position is through convincing the Yiqi Alliance members Black Fox was a lie fabricated by Wangquan Fugui’s father.

Quan Jingting was meticulous in making up the lie of Black Fox not existing. He brought in Tianmen Wenlu. Tianmen Wenlu is the son of the guard guarding the heavenly gate leading to the world outside the circle where Black Fox is. Tianmen Wenlu was mind-controlled. He told a story of Wangquan Fugui’s father having threatened and bribed his father to set up a mind-losing formation. This mind-losing formation explained how the elite fighters from each of the prestigious families in Yiqi Alliance turned on each other. The mind-losing formation required seven mind-losing talismans. Tianmen Wenlu brought in one of the mind-losing talismans for everyone to see and said it was written with the blood of Wangquan Fugui’s father. To prove the creator of the talisman was Wangquan Fugui’s father, Tianmen Wenlu explained the mind-losing talisman never harms its creator. Verifying the talisman was authentic, a talisman expert from the Mu family was brought in to take a look at it. This expert verified the talisman was authentic. Proving the creator was Wangquan Fugui’s father, the talisman expert activated the mind-losing talisman. What happened next was the talisman attacked everyone but protected Wangquan Fugui’s father when Quan Jingting threw a sword at him. The Yiqi Alliance members showed a bit of hesitation to believe what Quan Jingting presented, but ultimately they believed Quan Jingting when, controlled by Quan Jingting, Tianmen Wenlu gave his life up to prove the story Quan Jingting spoke to be truth.

After leaving Wangquan Manor and Yiqi Alliance, Wangquan Fugui takes Qingtong to a place called Luming Valley. Qingtong recovers after Wangquan Fugui transfers more spiritual power into her. However, Wangquan Fugui goes into a coma soon after. Qingtong sets up a barrier with cobwebs around the area to block outsiders from detecting their whereabouts.

With Wangquan Fugui in a coma, Qingtong goes around the marketplace down the mountain at Huadeng Village to sell her silk cloths to trade for necessities. A month passes and Wangquan Fugui finally wakes up from his coma. Though weakened and needing more time to recover his spiritual power, Wangquan Fugui’s meridians are in tact and the dragon power in his system is neutralised. Wangquan Fugui’s mother’s The Purest Sun Flame had protected Wangquan Fugui during this time.

The time that Wangquan Fugui spends at Luming Valley he is able to experience a brief time of what it feels like to be a regular and carefree person, undisturbed by worldly affairs. He enjoys the festivities of the new year in this village community. Qingtong teaches Wangquan Fugui how to make tangyuan. Before cooking them, Qingtong slips in a coin into one of the tangyuan and makes sure the tangyuan with the coin gets scooped into Wangquan Fugui’s bowl so that the new year can bring him good luck and prosperity. However, Wangquan Fugui swaps the bowls when Qingtong goes to get spoons for them. The tangyuan with the coin ends up in Qingtong’s bowl. Qingtong wants Wangquan Fugui to have good luck in the new year, so she shares the luck with him. She places the coin in Wangquan Fugui’s hand to have him take the coin.

In the evening, Qingtong and Wangquan Fugui head down the mountain to Huadeng Village where they join in on the preparations for the village’s new years ritual of praying to the river god for wealth and peace. The two are seen as husband and wife by the wife of the village head. Neither Qingtong nor Wangquan Fugui make a fuss to correct the misunderstanding. During this time, whilst Qingtong join in on learning the opening performance the village head’s daughter performs for the ritual, Wangquan Fugui learns how to make fish lanterns that the village head’s wife explains to be offerings to the river god. When Qingtong returns to Wangquan Fugui’s side, Wangquan Fugui teaches Qingtong how to make the fish lanterns.

Both Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong have wishes to make. While Wangquan Fugui wishes to live a carefree life just like what he’s experiencing now and see a world where there are no evil demons, Qingtong wishes Wangquan Fugui is able to be free, travel around the world, pursue the things he wants to pursue, and no longer be disturbed by worldly affairs.

Qingtong asks Wangquan Fugui if he truly won’t return back to Wangquan Manor. Wangquan Fugui seems to understand the question as Qingtong feeling responsible for making him leave Wangquan Manor and Yiqi Alliance. He says though leaving Wangquan Manor was something he never thought he’d do because he had only cared about drawing his sword and sheathing it, he was no longer The Soldier deep inside. Even without her, he would have reached this point. Wangquan Fugui seems to think about how his journey would have been like without Qingtong: It’s better with her company. Wangquan Fugui is amused seeing the fish lantern he made. He’s amused at how he’s able to also learn to make fish lanterns among his skills in swordsmanship. Qingtong responds with expressing the change she sees in Wangquan Fugui from his past self. He smiles more than before.

The cobweb barrier that Qingtong put up to prevent outsiders from finding their location has broken down some time ago. Another one of Black Fox’s little black fox clones inside the circle named Gukui finds Wangquan Fugui. Gukui seeks Wangquan Fugui to go to Black Fox’s side and help Black Fox break out of the circle and change the order of the world. To tempt Wangquan Fugui, Gukui speaks to the resentment and hatred it thinks Wangquan Fugui has towards what happened between him and Yiqi Alliance. However, Gukui finds there’s not one bit of resentment or hatred in Wangquan Fugui’s heart. Instead, the little black fox finds Wangquan Fugui making it clear that he is not someone who falls under the control of others. The failure to bring Wangquan Fugui over to Black Fox’s side this time doesn’t worry the little black fox. It feels confident Wangquan Fugui will go to them sooner or later. Gukui says Wangquan Fugui isn’t in a deep enough state of despair yet. When Wangquan Fugui’s hatred is at its extreme, it will see him then.

The developments ahead progresses Wangquan Fugui towards a state of despair and this leads to Wangquan Fugui becoming a darker and edgier character. Wangquan Fugui comes across as being another person Black Fox has under her dark power and the prophecy which sees Wangquan Fugui break Black Fox out of the circle and allow world-destroying monsters to descend onto the world eventuates. What Gukui had said about Wangquan Fugui needing to get to extreme hatred to come to their side seems to be true. Not so apparent, though, is that Wangquan Fugui is indeed someone who doesn’t fall under the control of others.

The heading for the drama from this point in the drama is seeing Wangquan Fugui come to a state of despair and then seeing Third Young Master Aolai’s prophecy take place. It’s the beginning of seeing the end to Qingtong and Wangquan Fugui’s couple-like relationship when the developments end up seeing them unable to fulfill their promise to each other to travel and see the world together.

The news of Quan Jingting taking over Yiqi Alliance is delivered to Wangquan Fugui through the information network of Silk Cave. Silk Cave has become an ally for Wangquan Fugui after the hate Madam Yin had towards Wangquan Fugui’s father gets undone.

The hate Madam Yin had towards Wangquan Fugui’s father was explained to have been Madam Yin seeing Wangquan Fugui’s father to have killed her husband because her husband, a golden core spider demon, exploded his golden core and lied he’d survive. Wangquan Fugui being in a weakened state and without a sword, the opportunity seemed to be there for Madam Yin. She went to Luming Valley to kill Wangquan Fugui. Qingtong worried Wangquan Fugui was not in a strong enough state to stand against Madam Yin so she tried to stop Madam Yin from getting to Wangquan Fugui. It brought Qingtong to take desperate measures of choosing to explode her demon core to stop Madam Yin after finding she was no match for her. However, Wangquan Fugui was strong enough and he could materialise a sword to fight Madam Yin with producing a sword with The Purest Sun Flame. Wangquan Fugui stopped Qingtong from exploding her demon core in time and he reversed the hate Madam Yin had towards his father (and by extension hate towards him) when he brought Madam Yin’s husband out of animated suspension which Madam Yin didn’t know her husband was in.

Hearing Quan Jingting had taken over Yiqi Alliance and being informed Quan Jingting had sent disciples to East Region to kill all the demons there, Wangquan Fugui believes the only way to take down Quan Jingting and save his father who is imprisoned in sword tomb is to prove Black Fox exists. Wangquan Fugui is aware Black Fox has little black fox clones within the circle. Wangquan Fugui’s way to catch one is to use himself as bait and a second visit Madam Yin personally makes to Luming Valley comes at the right time for Wangquan Fugui to bait a little black fox and catch it.

Madam Yin informs Wangquan Fugui there has been a lot of great demons going to Silk Cave wanting to buy information on his whereabouts. However, she has helped Wangquan Fugui to hide his whereabouts with providing smokescreens. With the hope Wangquan Fugui would provide his assistance, the next information Madam Yin tells Wangquan Fugui is that the next area Quan Jingting has set his sights on to eliminate demons is the area around Mount Baiwu which is home to Silk Cave and eight hundred demons.

Wangquan Fugui doesn’t respond to Madam Yin’s request for help. He seems to only hear the information Madam Yin provided about demons wanting information on his whereabouts. It seems when Quan Jingting is taken down with proving Black Fox exists, Mount Baiwu won’t come to be the next target and Silk Cave and the lives of the eight hundred demons living in Mount Baiwu will be saved. Wangquan Fugui asks Madam Yin to spread the information on his whereabouts so that demons who want to know his whereabouts will all come for him, including little black foxes that are within the circle.

With demon power at its peak on the day of the new moon and believing demons will come for him at this time, Wangquan Fugui sets up a formation on this day to trap the little black fox. To handle the other demons and help lessen the demons that come for him, Wangquan Fugui has Quan Rumu stationed outside the valley. On the night of the new moon, the demons come for Wangquan Fugui. One of them is the person Quan Rumu has been looking for.

Long Weiyun has been possessed by Gukui through the debt she sees herself to have with Quan Rumu. Quan Rumu has been shown to have deteriorating health and something called reviving powder has been helping to keep him alive. This reviving powder is from the demon realm and is only used by those in the battlefield with all their meridians broken and with a wish to see their family members one last time. Taking this reviving powder shortens life.

Quan Rumu’s deteriorating health was brought about by two incidents in the past: Long Weiyun’s want to absorb a sacred relic of the dragon demon clan known as the water-control orb and Quan Rumu transferring his last bit of spiritual power to Long Weiyun after a confrontation she had with Quan Jingting.

After Long Weiyun’s mother’s death, the water-control orb was passed down to Long Weiyun. The want to take revenge, Long Weiyun wanted to absorb the water-control orb quickly, but her strength wasn’t strong enough at the time. Forcefully absorbing the water-control orb meant she would endure intense pain. So, she used Quan Rumu’s like and trust towards her to plant a love gu on him so that he could bear the pain for her whilst she forcefully absorbed the water-control orb. This was something Quan Rumu was willing to do. He saw his life to be hers after what his father did to her mother. This resulted in Quan Rumu’s meridians becoming damaged.

In the confrontation Long Weiyun had with Quan Jingting, Quan Jingting was there for the water-control orb. Long Weiyun was provoked by Quan Jingting with the mention of the tortures her mother endured. She reverted to her dragon form and became uncontrollable. Quan Rumu had to stab Long Weiyun’s dragon body to transform her back to human form. Long Weiyun was still uncontrollable. She kept Quan Rumu in a bind and went to prepare an attack at him with the water-control orb. To bring Long Weiyun out of her uncontrolled state, Quan Rumu called out to Long Weiyun to remember who he was before piercing the water-control orb with his sword. This brought the water-control to become lost and buried in the sand. Quan Rumu took Long Weiyun to safety. He transferred the last bit of spiritual power to Long Weiyun. This caused his meridians to become broken and his sword meridian to be damaged.

The little black fox convinced Long Weiyun she could clear the debt she had with Quan Rumu. If she obtained Wangquan Fugui’s sword meridian, she could transfer it to Quan Rumu and reconnect his broken meridians. This would allow him to live.

Wangquan Fugui has Long Weiyun in the formation. To draw the little black fox out of Long Weiyun’s body, Wangquan Fugui has to send spiritual fire at her. This will kill Long Weiyun in the process. Quan Rumu stops Wangquan Fugui from sending stronger spiritual fire towards Long Weiyun with informing him she’s the one he’s been telling him he has been looking for.

Gukui wants Wangquan Fugui to show he continues to be without hatred in his heart and not bow to threats when she will make Long Weiyun kill his woman (Qingtong) and his cousin. Quan Rumu standing the closest to Long Weiyun, Gukui gets a strike at him. Gukui doesn’t get any further in its threat when Wangquan Fugui, Qingtong, and Quan Rumu work together to keep Long Weiyun immobilised.

Not able to draw Gukui out of Long Weiyun’s body without killing her, the only other way is getting Long Weiyun to purge Gukui herself. Qingtong has a way to wake Long Weiyun up and get her to do this. She enters into Long Weiyun’s consciousness through her silk threads.

Inside Long Weiyun’s consciousness, Qingtong sees Long Weiyun is trapped by the debt she feels she owes Quan Rumu. Long Weiyun has Quan Rumu’s tablet in her hands, expressing not wanting to owe him and saying she has been in search of a way to save him, searching in both the human realm and demon realm because she doesn’t want to owe him. Qingtong wakes Long Weiyun up with transforming the characters on the tablet she holds with words from a poem she recalls Quan Rumu wrote. The poem expressed Quan Rumu having never hated Long Weiyun.

Gukui is purged from Long Weiyun’s body and Wangquan Fugui traps the little black fox in a formation before transferring it into a pod.

Before Wangquan Fugui heads to Wangquan Manor to go take Quan Jingting down with this evidence showing Black Fox exists to save his father, he’s visited by Butler Fei. Butler Fei is on the brink of death from the torture he received from Quan Jingting. He comes with news about what has happened at Wangquan Manor—news that Wangquan Fugui is already aware of—and to deliver Wangquan Fugui the Wangquan sword. As Butler Fei says his last words to Wangquan Fugui, and with Butler Fei being someone who Wangquan Fugui sees as having cared for him the most, Wangquan Fugui tries hard to save him with transferring his spiritual power to him. However, Butler Fei is beyond saving.

Getting to Wangquan Manor and going to the Wangquan sword tomb, Wangquan Fugui finds his father shackled by chains. As Wangquan Fugui strikes at the chains to free his father, the heaven-and-earth strike hints through his strike. Wangquan Fugui mastering the heaven-and-earth strike is very near. He masters the strike at Heaven and Earth Hall where he proves to everyone Black Fox exists. It comes after Quan Jingting’s hidden demon nature gets revealed.

At Heaven and Earth Hall, Wangquan Fugui shows everyone the little black fox, proving Black Fox exists. The little black fox looks for a way to escape the barrier erected from the pod Wangquan Fugui used to trap it, but it’s killed. Quan Jingting remains firm on his lie, calling what Wangquan Fugui just showed to be sorcery.

Quan Jingting isn’t able to keep up with the lie. When Wangquan Fugui summons the Wangquan sword and fights him, the unmatched strength of Wangquan Fugui’s attacks forces Quan Jingting to reveal and use his left dragon demon hand which he has kept hidden under a glove. Without the need to hide his demon powers anymore, Quan Jingting launches an all-out attack at Wangquan Fugui. Quan Jingting is still no match for Wangquan Fugui. He gets knocked to the ground and becomes unconscious.

Taisui, the little black fox sharing Quan Jingting’s body, exits from Quan Jingting’s body. It releases dark power to possess the room and brings them to attack Wangquan Fugui all at once. The heaven-and-earth strike is mastered by Wangquan Fugui: with a single heaven-and-earth strike, he purges the dark power possessing the people and releases them from mind control. Taisui is killed.

Mastering the heaven-and-earth strike, Third Young Master Aolai’s prophecy comes back around as a problem Wangquan Fugui needs to solve. The Yiqi Alliance members is urging his father to think about putting the good of all over family ties. Resolving this for his father, Wangquan Fugui voluntarily removes his sword meridian to calm their concerns. Without his sword meridian, Wangquan Fugui isn’t able to wield a sword and his (fighting) movements become restricted. Furthermore, he’s exiled to Western Regions and marked with a binding spell to prevent him from going outside of the area.

For the evil acts carried out so far by Quan Jingting, Quan Jingting feigns everything he had done was against his will due to the little black fox sharing his body. When Quan Rumu transports him to Western Regions and brings him to Long Weiyun to allow her to do as she pleases with him, Quan Jingting shows himself to be remorseful. He shows himself to allow Long Weiyun to kill him to make amends for what he did to her mother. Soft-hearted towards Quan Rumu, Long Weiyun doesn’t.

Not killing Quan Jingting only means seeing him continuing to satisfy his greed for power. Though imprisoned in a dungeon at the border, at the Quan family dungeon, Quan Jingting works on a plan of bringing about a formation called The Myriad Blight Formation to prove to Black Fox he is still useful. With Wangquan Fugui exiled to Western Regions and losing his sword meridian, Black Fox feels uncertain about the prophecy of Wangquan Fugui helping her break out of the circle coming true. Therefore, Black Fox finds Quan Jingting’s plan worthy of executing. If successful in activating the myriad blight formation, the formation can help feed an immense amount of dark power, the power of hate, into Black Fox’s black grief tree. The amount of power is enough to help Black Fox take human form and no longer need the prophecy to come true.

In order to activate the myriad blight formation, it requires resurrecting an ancient ruler of Western Regions from a thousand years ago. The ancient ruler is Queen of Qianxia of Qianxia Kingdom. She has the magic item, the serpent bone sceptre, which produces the formation.

The history of this ancient time in Western Regions where Qianxia Kingdom ruled the land is one where the dragon demon clan was the most threatening clan because of the unmatched power the berserk dragon has after absorbing the water-control orb. In order to have reign over the berserk dragon and destroy it, demon clans—with the Corsac Fox clan standing out among all demon clans—and an army—the Li army of the Qianxia Kingdom—joined forces to bring about the myriad blight formation. This formation is a secret and forbidden art belonging to the Qianxia Kingdom and it needs the sacrifice of lives from the human, demon, and dragon clans to activate and power it. A thousand years ago, to activate the myriad blight formation to kill the beserk dragon, lives from both the Corsac Fox clan and the Li army were sacrificed. This is what circulated around and became the history of Western Regions. However, the actual events that took place isn’t as what has circulated.

The actual events is Western Regions had two periods of threat from the power of berserk dragons. In the first period, the successful resistance against the beserk dragon’s rampant killings was through a plan Gulizan, Queen of Qianxia, devised to seize the dragon spine of the dragon clan leader which helped turn the situation around. A second resurgence of the berserk dragon came when the berserk dragon wielded the water-control orb. It saw torrential floods sweep across the land which brought bloodshed and chaos. The myriad flight formation was then used to eliminate the chaos created by the berserk dragon. Partway through the sacrifice, The Corsac Fox clan head ordered a retreat because the head of the Corsac Fox clan couldn’t bear to see the continuation of future generations of the clan gone. With the Corsac Fox clan retreating, it required the people of the Qianxia Kingdom to fill the shortfall that was required for the myriad blight formation to destroy the berserk dragon, bringing the fall of Qianxia Kingdom.

Qingcheng assists in this plan of activating the myriad blight formation.

Qingcheng had fled Deer Village in East Region during when Quan Jingting was in charge of Yiqi Alliance and had ordered disciples to kill demons in East Region. He returned back there after the attack to retrieve the pouch Qingtong gave him. At this time, the little black fox, Guifeng, visited Qingcheng. The little black fox spoke to Qingcheng’s hate towards The Soldier, his want for Qingtong to be by his side, and his feeling of being weak and lowly to make Qingcheng another extension of Black Fox’s power. Qingcheng didn’t fall to the state of despair needed for Guifeng to share his body during this time. Qingcheng experienced complete despair and became possessed by Guifeng after he got taken to a city not very far from Deer Village—to Quanji City.

At Quanji City, in Asura Hall, Qingcheng and other demons had their demon power depleted and fed into the governor of Quanji City. All demons but Qingcheng died after their demon power was depleted. Qingcheng appeared to feel hopelessness and reached despair when he saw everyone to have lied to him. He felt Qingtong had lied to him about caring about him and the little black fox lied to him about giving him the power he wanted. Qingcheng became possessed by Guifeng and he became the governor of Quanji City after he killed the Quanji City governor.

The power Qingcheng gains from sharing his body with Guifeng is for his want to have Qingtong to never leave his side. This obsession doesn’t bring a good outcome for Qingcheng as Qingtong can’t be held back from going to Wangquan Fugui’s side, but Qingcheng tries his best and he does it with lies.

Qingcheng had located Qingtong outside Wangquan Manor. She was there waiting at the meeting place she and Wangquan Fugui made when Wangquan Fugui went into Wangquan Manor to save his father and take Quan Jingting down. With Qingcheng wanting Qingtong to head back with him instead of accompanying her in waiting for Wangquan Fugui to return, Qingcheng made Qingtong unconscious. To not alert Wangquan Fugui, Qingcheng left a message in Qingtong’s voice in a butterfly spirit for Wangquan Fugui to receive when he returned to her. The message told Wangquan Fugui she had something urgent to handle and she would go to him after she handled it.

Qingcheng makes Qingtong unable to remember anything from the time she waited for Wangquan Fugui’s return outside Wangquan Manor to when she wakes up in Quanji City with him by her side. When Qingtong wanted to know what happened to Wangquan Fugui, Qingcheng tells her Wangquan Fugui was in a bad situation because of the heaven-and-earth strike he mastered. Qingcheng is vague about the outcome for Wangquan Fugui. He but makes the suggestion that Wangquan Fugui is likely dead with saying Yiqi Alliance wouldn’t have spared him. He stops her from going to find Wangquan Fugui and makes her stay to care for him when he pretends to be severely injured from a false situation of him saving her from Yiqi Alliance wanting to kill her.

For a short time, Qingcheng is able to make Qingtong sit and wait for news to come about Wangquan Fugui’s whereabouts. At the time she grows impatient, Qingcheng tries to make Qingtong lose hope and stop looking for Wangquan Fugui altogether.

Qingcheng shows Qingtong Wangquan Fugui is dead. He brings her to Wangquan Fugui’s grave with a story of Quan Rumu betraying Wangquan Fugui. With the grave that Qingtong sees before her, Qingcheng says Quan Rumu had prepared it because Wangquan Fugui wasn’t allowed to enter the ancestral hall after death. When Qingtong expresses not believing Wangquan Fugui is dead and this seems to bring Qingcheng to feel there might be a possibility Qingtong might go digging up the grave and find it empty, Qingcheng says Wangquan Fugui’s body was abandoned in the wild for birds and beasts to tear apart.

Qingtong wants to go find Quan Rumu. Qingcheng dissuades her with making Quan Rumu a dangerous enemy to confront. The truth about Wangquan Fugui’s sword meridian having been extracted and transferred to Quan Rumu is made out to have been underhandedly done with a mention of Quan Rumu having succeeded Wangquan Fugui as The Soldier. The actual state of affairs is The Soldier doesn’t exist in Yiqi Alliance anymore. Though Quan Rumu has Wangquan Fugui’s sword meridian in him and has taken residence in Wangquan Fugui’s residence at Cold Pool, Quan Rumu was upset when he found out Wangquan Fugui’s sword meridian was transferred to him.

Qingcheng is pushed to the point of frustration and speaks words that bring him to receive a slap across his face from Qingtong. Finding Qingtong still won’t stay put and instead is fuelled with the thought of revenge, Qingcheng says it’s Wangquan Fugui’s retribution for what has happened to him because he’s killed countless demons.

Qingtong feels guilt towards the slap she gave Qingcheng. That guilt Qingtong feels allows Qingcheng to convince Qingtong to stay put for the meantime with a suggestion for her to increase her demon power before taking her revenge. This gives Qingcheng another opportunity to stop Qingtong from going to Wangquan Fugui. He provides her some manuals with ordinary techniques that aren’t suitable for her constitution to hamper her progress.

It doesn’t take long for Qingtong to find out Wangquan Fugui is alive. The first hint telling Qingtong Wangquan Fugui is alive is when Qingcheng gifts her a fish lantern which she recognised to be the ones Wangquan Fugui had made during their time in Huadeng Village. It brings her to head to Western Regions to find Wangquan Fugui. Qingcheng reacts fast. When Qingtong comes across a stall selling Wangquan Fugui’s lanterns, she disappointedly finds a Yiqi Alliance disciple selling the lanterns and telling her Wangquan Fugui was executed for associating with demons. Qingcheng hired this individual to lie.

Qingtong isn’t without the thought Qingcheng had set things up to have her give up hope on Wangquan Fugui. It leads her to increase her demon power with the method she found in the manuals Qingcheng gave her.

The cultivation method is in the Joy and Sorrow sect located inside Asura Hall. It requires Qingtong to undergo a trial. Passing the trial, she’s rewarded the grief tree seed of Tushan and its power of love. Failing the trial, she gets consumed by hatred and is eternally frozen in the Joy and Sorrow sect.

To pass the trial, Qingtong has to show her love for Wangquan Fugui is pure and true. Qingtong faces a dark version of herself posing questions which attempts to sway Qingtong into seeing hate and not love as the most consistent thing in the world and see hate as what gives power.

Qingtong’s dark self has Qingtong think about what she’s gained from going about the world with love. Qingtong’s dark self makes Qingtong answer a couple of questions demonstrating her point: Why is she still weak if love could give her power? Why does Wangquan Fugui immediately leave anytime there’s an emergency? Her dark self sees her to not have obtained anything from love with a view of love being a rootless tree that can’t give power but instead makes a weak, pathetic, and cowardly person.

Qingtong isn’t swayed by the argument her dark self presents her. She does, however, feel sadness towards not having gotten the chance to see Wangquan Fugui one last time. Qingtong’s dark self uses this as another opportunity to get Qingtong to see hate as the way. She says Qingtong was merely a toy for Wangquan Fugui to kill time when he was bored. Obtaining power will allow her to change everything. To obtain power, it’s through hate. Qingtong remains firm in seeing love as the way of the world. Love provides the power to live. Qingtong’s dark self shows Qingtong how wrong she is to think love can give her the power to live.

The tree seed injected into Qingtong at the beginning of the trial is ripped out of her before injected back into her. It brings a branch to grow and pierce through her, excruciatingly suspending her in mid-air. Qingtong’s dark self again tells Qingtong she is weak, pathetic, and cowardly. Qingtong doesn’t back down. With strength still left in her, she asks if she deserves to die with no chance of living just because she’s weak. Her dark self says the weak doesn’t deserve to live.

Qingtong isn’t able to hold on anymore. At this moment, Wangquan Fugui’s voice comes in to remind Qingtong why he gave her the name Qingtong and told her her heart has never been weak. Qingtong’s strength and resoluteness comes back. Seeing love to be the way and finding all lives to be equal, Qingtong fights to survive. Qingtong’s dark self warns her to think twice about fighting her way out of the bind she’s in with telling her the tree branches will grow wildly and pierce her eyes if she continues. Qingtong doesn’t fear the consequence of losing her sight and not be able to accompany Wangquan Fugui in seeing beautiful views with him. Rather, she believes beautiful views will be unveiled to her with a clear heart. Qingtong calls upon the dust-seeker sword to free herself with a strike at the branch pinning her. She eliminates her dark self with a throw of her sword at her.

There’s a hidden layer to this trial and Qingtong successfully passes it. Upon eliminating her dark self, Qingtong chooses to free the trapped souls and accepts the consequence of being eternally frozen in the Joy and Sorrow sect instead of accepting the tree seed and the power it offers.

After successfully passing the trial and obtaining the tree seed and its power, Qingtong returns to Asura Hall. With the increase in cultivation, Qingcheng voluntarily hands over the position of Governor of Quanji City to Qingtong. She is no longer forced to remain in Quanji City and prevented from finding Wangquan Fugui.

Qingtong doesn’t go find Wangquan Fugui immediately after increasing her power. She makes an urgent visit to Tushan to see the third master of Tushan, Tushan Rongrong, with a need to know the answer to her question regarding whether the tree seed inside her can connect to Black Fox’s black grief tree. During a session refining it, she saw Black Fox in a conversation with one of her little black foxes about Wangquan Fugui. The answer would let her know whether what she saw was an illusion or it’s reality and Wangquan Fugui is truly alive.

The answer Qingtong gets is affirmative: The tree seed inside her can connect to Black Fox’s black grief tree. Therefore, Qingtong learns Wangquan Fugui is alive. The visit has Qingtong also learn about the tree seed inside her. It’s not a grief tree seed with the power of love but a black grief tree seed with the power of hate. It was one of many grief tree seeds which Tushan Rongrong scattered across the land to create a network of trees to spread the power of love. However, the tree seed Qingtong obtained became a black grief tree seed after the former Quanji City governor stole the grief tree seed that landed in Quanji City and absorbed resentment from demons and humans who were brought in to refine it and died. Qingtong is told the black grief tree seed with the power of hate can be refined to a grief tree seed with the power of love, however.

The power of love is what Qingtong refines the tree seed inside her to be and the power of love is what feeds Qingtong’s tree seed. This is an important detail that comes into use in the final episode of the drama. Another detail is that the tree seed inside Qingtong can hurt Black Fox. More importantly, it’s inseparable from her. The tree seed and the power is rooted inside her. If the tree seed is removed from her, she dies. Qingtong’s black grief tree seed that she refines to a grief tree seed with the power of love is key to helping Wangquan Fugui rid Black Fox and its dark power from the world. Qingtong’s tree seed is one of the four items Wangquan Fugui needs to defeat Black Fox.

Qingtong goes to see Wangquan Fugui in Sandstorm Town in Western Regions. Her visit is brief and she doesn’t make her presence known to him. The black grief tree seed in her and the threat she poses with being able to connect to Black Fox’s black grief tree stops her from going to his side. Wangquan Fugui doesn’t sense Qingtong’s presence, either. At the time Qingtong finds Wangquan Fugui, he has burned his life force and sustained severe internal injury from using The Purest Sun Flame without his sword meridian to resolve a hidden chaos surrounding the Corsac Fox clan.

When Wangquan Fugui first settled in Western Regions, each day was passed simply and ordinarily as a lantern maker. The hidden chaos that was in Western Regions came to his attention when he was at the market streets. He came to listen to an elder who gathered children to listen to a history lesson on the battle that took place during when Qianxia Kingdom ruled the land now called Western Regions. Wangquan Fugui went in search for the whereabouts of the the water-control orb upon hearing that the water-control orb afforded whoever obtained it rule of the region.

Wangquan Fugui’s search for the water-control orb brought him to be acquainted with the second prince of the Corsac Fox clan, Fan Yunfei. Fan Yunfei is a naïve and trusting fox demon with a pure heart. He ended up with the water-control orb when he ingested it during a fight between a female bandit and the Li army female general, Li Xueyang. Li Xueyang had arrived at the female bandit’s camp to arrest the female bandit for rounding up men she used for her pleasure and benefit. Wangquan Fugui was rounded up and so was Fan Yunfei. Wangquan Fugui got locked up after the female bandit wasn’t pleased by his evasiveness. Fan Yunfei’s handsome face and acceptable obedient behaviour was fine until he angered her with telling her his reason for going to her camp was to obtain his clan’s water-control orb—a lie his father, the Corsac Fox clan head and ruler of Western Regions, told him. The female bandit was no match against Li Xueyang’s fighting skill and strength. The water-control orb which the female bandit had possession of and brought out to fight Li Xueyang was left for Fan Yunfei to grab. In his fox form, Fan Yunfei grabbed it with his mouth and swallowed it.

Wangquan Fugui wanted to find a way to extract the water-control orb from Fan Yunfei and chose to buy time for himself to come up with a way to do so with becoming Fan Yunfei’s tutor when Fan Yunfei’s father requested him to guide him.

Quan Rumu also became Fan Yunfei’s tutor. Disguised as a renown astrologer, Quan Rumu was dispatched to Western Regions to look at the situation upon Yiqi Alliance hearing about the water-control orb resurfacing and getting in the hands of the Corsac Fox clan.

Fan Yunfei’s father was ambitious, but it wasn’t apparent under an easy-going outward appearance. A secret plan was taking place. The first part was completed when Fan Yunfei obtained the water-control orb. The other part required obtaining the dragon spine which Li Xueyang inherited. Fan Yunfei’s father wanted True Dragon Power for Fan Yunfei. With it, and getting Fan Yunfei to ascend the throne, the Corsac Fox clan could remain the ruler of Western Regions without challenge and bring prosperity to the territory.

It wasn’t a difficult task for Fan Yunfei’s father to obtain the dragon spine. Fan Yunfei pursued Li Xueyang and Li Xueyang agreed to marry Fan Yunfei after she was moved by Fan Yunfei’s unwavering effort in pursuing her. He was the mysterious person who protected her when she was lying in the desert severely injured years ago.

On the day of their wedding ceremony, all guests fell unconscious and killed upon being poisoned with blood scorpion poison. Fan Yunfei and Li Xueyang were transported out to a secret chamber when Wangquan Fugui and Quan Rumu didn’t fall unconscious or get killed by the poison. Both Fan Yunfei and Li Xueyang—severely injured and weak, but conscious—couldn’t overpower Fan Yunfei’s father in a secret chamber which decreased everyone’s power to one-tenth with Fan Yunfei’s father immune.

Fan Yunfei obtained True Dragon Power when the dragon spine was extracted from Li Xueyang and implanted into him by force. Fan Yunfei struggled with the evil aura of the water-control orb. It brought him to a possessed state of wanting to kill. His love towards Li Xueyang had him able to stop himself from carrying out his father’s command to kill Li Xueyang, but he almost killed his father. Wangquan Fugui had placed a tracker on Fan Yunfei earlier on and found Fan Yunfei in time to stop Fan Yunfei from bringing the weapon down onto his father.

Wangquan Fugui’s initial thought to extract the water-control orb from Fan Yunfei was no longer necessary. He found Fan Yunfei to be suitable to obtain true strength with his pure and sincere nature and he saw him capable of bringing peace and preserving harmony throughout the realm. With The Purest Sun Flame, Wangquan Fugui refined the water-control orb for Fan Yunfei, ridding it of its evil aura and making Fan Yunfei the owner of the water-control orb and its power.

The state Wangquan Fugui is in after burning his life force to refine the water-control orb for Fan Yunfei is a concern to Black Fox. Black Fox is uncertain about Wangquan Fugui being able to help it break out of the circle. Quan Jingting’s plan of activating the myriad blight formation becomes priority and Black Fo wants nothing to jeopardise the plan.

Qingtong is seen as a hindrance to this plan to activate the myriad blight formation. Her ability to connect to the black grief tree makes Black Fox worry she’d discover the plan and inform Wangquan Fugui. Qingcheng is asked to make sure Qingtong doesn’t jeopardise the plan. The way in which Qingcheng handles Qingtong is making her an enemy of Yiqi Alliance by instigating a situation to bring her to kill the Ximen family master of Yiqi Alliance.

The Ximen family master has dissatisfaction towards Wangquan Fugui’s father for ranking him at the same level as someone of a younger generation—Dongfang Yuechu, son of the younger sister of Wangquan Fugui’s mother, Dongfang Qinlan. He has that greed for power that can be manipulated. Qingcheng is able to get the Ximen family master to learn a technique increasing power through consuming demon power. This is so that Qingcheng can have the Ximen family master take his direction of obtaining that demon power from capturing demons from Qianji City.

Qingcheng expects Qingtong to kill the Ximen family master after hearing he has captured Quanji City demons to consume their demon power, but she doesn’t. When Qingtong gets informed of the situation, she confronts the Ximen family master at his residence. After a bout where the Ximen family master tries to consume Qingtong’s demon power but gets overpowered and disabled, Qingtong gives the Ximen family master a chance to live. She allows him time to release the demons. With the outcome not as expected, Qingcheng kills every single person in the Ximen family household and frames Qingtong for the killings using a fatal cut at the neck that can be recognised as coming from the dust-seeker sword.

Qingcheng’s actions brings Yiqi Alliance to suspect Qingtong as the killer. They investigate to confirm the suspicion. A letter was placed at the scene, detailing a second killing which will take place on the night of the frost descent. Wangquan Shouren is the target. The killing of the Ximen family and the letter detailing an upcoming second killing has a rumour circulating around: Wangquan Fugui ordered the demon beside him (Qingtong) to do the killings because of the grudge the Ximen family master and Wangquan Shouren had towards him.

Qingtong investigates to clear her name and the rumour. It leads her to a night hotel where Wangquan Shouren banquet guests are staying at. At the time Qingtong investigates, Wangquan Fugui is also at this night hotel searching for her.

After resolving the chaos surrounding the Corsac Fox clan, Wangquan Fugui became concerned about Qingtong with a visit Qingcheng made to his place in Sandstorm Town. Qingcheng came as a stranger looking for help with writing a letter to his sister (Qingtong) which were words letting Wangquan Fugui know he wasn’t suitable for Qingtong and the person who’s suitable for her was himself. Qingtong’s safety became urgent for Wangquan Fugui when Qingcheng wouldn’t answer his question asking whether Qingtong was willing to be taken away and he also sensed an aura of Black Fox on Qingcheng. Wangquan Fugui had Quan Rumu help remove the binding spell which allowed him to freely move around again and search for Qingtong.

At the night hotel, Qingtong keeps her identity behind a veil hat. Wangquan Fugui is able to recognise her with the dust-seeker sword in her hand, but he doesn’t make it known he’s recognised her. Wangquan Fugui has the token Qingtong needs to enter Huntian Prison to find clues on the Ximen family master’s corpse.

While Fan Yunfei keeps Qingcheng busy to stop him from following, Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong head to Huntian Prison. Qingtong waits nearby. Wangquan Fugui enters the prison and examines the corpse of the Ximen family master. What he finds are nine cuts around the limbs and body made with the dust-seeker sword. A tenth and fatal cut is found at the neck. Wangquan Fugui finds this tenth cut to be similar, but not identical to the nine cuts made with the dust-seeker sword.

Wangquan Fugui sees Qingtong has been framed, but he is curious to know what made her hate the Ximen family master to inflict the nine non-fatal cuts on the limbs and body. He uses ‘attacker’ to ask Qingtong. Qingtong provides the reason: Demons were cruelly hunted down for their demon cores and absorbed by the Ximen family master. Wangquan Fugui understands Qingtong’s reason. Using ‘old friend’ to tell Qingtong this, Wangquan Fugui lets her know he’s not concerned about the path or the kind of demon she wants to become. Rather, he’s concerned she has been framed for the killings.

After those words from Wangquan Fugui, Qingtong reveals herself to him. She tells him she visited him in Sandstorm Town. Why she hid from him is because she didn’t want him to carry all that burden again. Wangquan Fugui finds Qingtong unnecessarily worrying about burdening him when he’s not afraid of carrying burdens. On the contrary, he fears something might happen to her. With this incident, Wangquan Fugui hints to Qingtong Qingcheng is the person framing her, expressing worry that, with the killer’s ability to mimic her sword marks so well, this person knows her very well and he suspects Qingtong knows this too.

Qingtong provokes Qingcheng to take action and reveal he is the person behind the killing of the Ximen family. Qingcheng’s initial mistake is slipping up on letting Qingtong know he’s met Wangquan Fugui before. At the night hotel, Qingcheng had pretended to have met Wangquan Fugui for the first time. Checking up on Qingtong in her room and finding her in an unhappy mood, he unknowingly asks if Wangquan Fugui had somehow upset her. Qingtong asks how he knew who Wangquan Fugui is. Qingcheng chooses to evade answering this question and the question asking what other things he has hidden from her.

Qingtong brings Qingcheng to reveal himself to be behind the killings of the Ximen family with making the situation sound dire and hopeless for her: With the fatal wound at the neck identical to the mark caused by the dust-seeker sword, the evidence is solid. She has agreed to go with Wangquan Fugui to go to Wangquan Manor to clear things up. Qingcheng becomes panicked and urges Qingtong to not go. He tries to convince her with warning her it’s Wangquan Fugui’s desire to wash his hands off from the killings. When Qingtong insists on going because she wants to prove she has nothing to do with the next murder of Wangquan Shouren, Qingcheng places a puppet talisman on her back to stop her from going. Qingcheng gives himself away when he thinks Qingtong is under his control with ordering her to kill Wangquan Shouren. Qingtong breaks free from the control.

With everything revealed, and with Qingtong asking him to tell her with his own mouth if he was the one to kill the entire Ximen family, Qingcheng chooses to escape. Fan Yunfei chases Qingcheng down and manages to stop him briefly for Qingtong and Wangquan Fugui to catch up. Guifeng appears through Qingcheng, showing them all Qingcheng has been possessed by Black Fox. Qingcheng heads to Wangquan Shouren’s Manor to kill Wangquan Shouren.

When Qingtong arrives, she finds Wangquan Shouren suspended in mid-air in a room, wrapped in spider silk, and showing signs of being severely tortured. Qingtong receives Wangquan Shouren’s apology for the bad deeds he’s committed against her. These were inciting Yiqi Alliance to punish her and spreading rumours about her being a calamity as well as calling her despicable. Qingtong is alarmed when Wangquan Shouren falls dead. She then finds herself placed in a bind with spider silk. Qingcheng appears before her.

Qingtong is confused by the state Qingcheng is in. She expresses to Qingcheng she had understood the things he had done prior to being exposed. It had been to drive a wedge between her and Wangquan Fugui. After being exposed, Qingtong can’t see Qingcheng’s reason for killing Wangquan Shouren. Qingcheng says it’s because he’s the one who cares about her the most in the world. Wangquan Shouren hurt her and therefore he deserved to die. The answer is worrying for Qingtong, feeling Qingcheng is the way he is currently because of being possessed by Black Fox. Qingcheng says it’s not. Instead, how he is now is how he wants to be because Black Fox allowed him to survive when he was at the clutches of the former Quanji City governor. Qingtong wants Qingcheng to expel Black Fox from himself. Qingcheng won’t because he doesn’t want to be his former low and weak self who could only crouch in the corner and pray that she’d look his way. As Qingcheng expresses this, he places a silencing talisman on Qingtong’s back.

Qingcheng seeks a fight with Wangquan Fugui to force Qingtong to choose between him and Wangquan Fugui. As Wangquan Fugui attacks Qingcheng to expel the little black fox from Qingcheng’s body, Qingcheng is pleased Wangquan Fugui is sending attacks at him—the harder the better. With Qingtong inside a room and the fight happening outside, he can make Wangquan Fugui’s attack appear more aggressive than is directed at him. Qingtong is aware of Qingcheng’s act. She manages to break free from the bind and stops the fight.

When Yiqi Alliance is heard arriving at Wangquan Shouren’s manor, Qingtong transports Qingcheng out to Asura Hall. She tries to expel the little black fox from him, but she isn’t able to when Qingcheng won’t disconnect from it. Qingtong keeps Qingcheng locked up in Asura Hall until she is able to find a way to save him.

Wangquan Fugui gets informed by Quan Rumu that on his side of things they had come across someone with a serpent bone sceptre. This someone is of course Gulizan, Queen of Qianxia. She has been awakened with Qingcheng’s blood and Quan Jingting has gotten her to agree to cooperate in their plan to activate the myriad blight formation. Sacrificing all of Western Regions and bring darkness and hate to fill the world pleased Gulizan in her want to have the Corsac Fox clan pay for their traitorous actions a thousand years ago.

The situation Quan Rumu encountered was finding Long Weiyun trapped in a dream formation Gulizan set up to drain Long Weiyun’s True Dragon Power for the myriad blight formation. Long Weiyun was trapped in a dream where she believed she was a young lady from a regular noble family who was getting married to her childhood sweetheart. Quan Rumu headed into the formation and managed to bring Long Weiyun to remember who she was and they both escaped from the dream formation before the formation drained all of their powers and die.

During Wangquan Fugui’s time at Corsac Fox State, he read the secret history books found in their library. Wangquan Fugui has knowledge about the person Quan Rumu encountered. He senses what Quan Rumu encountered has something to do with Black Fox also. The thing he hasn’t got the knowledge of is what Black Fox is planning. Wangquan Fugui has Fan Yunfei go to Quan Rumu’s location to investigate. Meanwhile, he heads to Quanji City to investigate.

The situation Wangquan Fugui comes upon is finding Qingcheng with Qingtong in his arms and she’s unconscious. Wangquan Fugui demands Qingcheng to hand Qingtong over to him. However, Qingcheng doesn’t. A fight starts between them. In order to find out what Black Fox is planning, Wangquan Fugui doesn’t resist much and he gets sent into a barrier of an ancient snow demon.

The environment inside the ancient snow demon’s barrier is an expanse of snow. Wangquan Fugui immediately preserves his energy in the freezing environment. Knowing the ancient snow demon’s nature is one that devour spirits, but has an innocence about her, Wangquan Fugui waits for her to let him know what Black Fox is up to. And in time, she does. Her confidence in seeing him turn into an ice sculpture for her to marvel at his beauty before killing him. she reveals Black Fox’s plan is to activate the myriad blight formation and bring hate and her dark power to fill the world. After obtaining this information, Wangquan Fugui kills the ancient snow demon.

By the time Wangquan Fugui learns of this plan of Black Fox’s, the myriad blight formation has been activated. In the guise of starting a new sect, Gulizan recruited disciples with high spiritual power to absorb their power for the myriad blight formation. Quan Rumu, Long Weiyun, Fan Yunfei, and Li Xueyang heard of this and went to pose as disciple hopefuls to investigate. The three of them couldn’t stop the activation of the formation when their identities were known to Gulizan. The myriad blight formation was activated with Fan Yunfei as the core while Long Weiyun and Li Xueyang fed the power needed when they went to save Fan Yunfei.

The formation is at the ruins of Qianxia Kingdom and Black Fox is getting closer to taking human form with her black grief tree absorbing the power supplied by the formation. Wangquan Fugui needs to immediately head there to stop it. However, when he returns back from the ancient snow demon’s barrier, he finds Qingtong and Qingcheng exchanging attacks. Qingtong reassures Wangquan Fugui she is able to handle Qingcheng. Hearing this, Wangquan Fugui sets off to the ruins of Qianxia Kingdom.

The myriad blight formation is expanding towards the population at Corsac Fox State with Black Fox strengthening it. As soon as Wangquan Fugui arrives on location, he places a seal to block the formation’s expansion. The seal he’s placed isn’t enough as the power strengthening the formation keeps getting stronger. Wangquan Fugui summons The Purest Sun Flame to provide a boost of power to strengthen the seal. It’s, however, putting a strain on him. He’s placing his hope on Quan Rumu and the others to deactivate the formation soon.

Deactivating the formation requires Gulizan to be defeated. Fan Yunfei isn’t able to do anything but watch Li Xueyang and Long Weiyun deplete their power to supplement him as the formation continues to drain his power. Quan Rumu is trying to defeat Gulizan, but he’s finding it a tough battle. He’s trapped in a vortex Gulizan has summoned around him. For a brief time, he isn’t able to break away from the vortex. Determination takes over. Determined to not waste the sword meridian Wangquan Fugui gave him with dying in this battle against Gulizan, Quan Rumu deals Gulizan a single strike as he recites his sword essence: “Forged from traversing the world’s sufferings yet believing in the light”. Gulizan is defeated. She and the sceptre turn to dust and the formation become stone and debris.

Black Fox fails to take human form. Darkness and hate filling the world is averted. There’s a brief period of peacefulness before Black Fox’s next move comes in.

Immediately following the destruction of the myriad blight formation, Quan Rumu, Long Weiyun, Fan Yunfei, and Li Xueyang celebrate with drinks and dancing at the Li Army camp. Meanwhile, Wangquan Fugui returns to Quanji City. He finds Qingtong is there, but Qingcheng is no longer there.

Qingtong wasn’t able to save Qingcheng. She couldn’t convince Qingcheng to get rid of the little black fox that possessed him. She was left with only one way to kill the little black fox: Bring out the tree seed inside her and kill herself and Qingcheng to kill the little black fox. However, Qingcheng chose to kill himself instead of seeing Qingtong kill herself along with him in order to get rid of the little black fox.

Seeing Qingtong sad, Wangquan Fugui has her keep her mind occupied with getting her to focus her mind on turning Quanji City into a place like Peach Village where humans and demons coexisted. During this peaceful time where Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong build Quanji City up to become a place like Peach Village, Wangquan Fugui plants life saving flowers called, blood-breaking elixir flowers, in the forest. Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong come to take in a chongming bird demon child. This child was hunted down by chongming bird demon and human pursuers dissatisfied by this child’s half-demon-half-human bloodline. Zelan Hall—a school for both demon and human children—is established and Wangquan Fugui teaches the classes.

Quan Rumu and Long Weiyun’s relationship has been love and hate and two people owing each other, but Long Weiyun has become touched by the care and protection that Quan Rumu has given her each time she was in danger. After the myriad blight formation event, Long Weiyun keeps Quan Rumu pursuing her for a short while before she accepts his like and shows she likes him too.

Wangquan Fugui’s father passes away from an illness which he had begun showing symptoms after revealing Quan Jingting’s dealings with Black Fox. Before passing away, Wangquan Fugui’s father had expressed his unspoken feelings and thoughts which let Wangquan Fugui know that his strictness had always been due to hating himself for what happened in the battle against Black Fox which saw his family and friends in The Masked Group get killed and not as Wangquan Fugui had believed which was that his birth caused his mother to die. Wangquan Fugui’s father apologised to Qingtong for his past prejudice, treatment, and harm he caused her because she was a demon. Wangquan Fugui’s father also took Wangquan Fugui to see Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai where the love between he and his mother began. This was the last place Wangquan Fugui and Wangquan Fugui’s father spent together before Wangquan Fugui’s father passed away. With his father passing away, Wangquan Fugui returns to Yiqi Alliance and takes over the responsibilities of getting rid of Black Fox from the world.

Previously foreshadowed and brought up many times throughout the drama, Third Young Master Aolai’s prophecy finally takes place and it brings in a final epic battle against Black Fox. The lead up begins with the return of Quan Jingting.

Quan Jingting is given another chance from Black Fox to help it break out of the circle. With the red bloodstone refined from a golden-winged demon bird’s heart which was once part of the serpent bone sceptre that belonged to Gulizan and was the object that produced the myriad blight formation, Quan Jingting regains demon power. His need for more power, he absorbs dragon power from dragon corpses in the dragon cave. However, he needs more dragon power.

A repeat of what happened to Long Weiyun’s mother in the past happens to Long Weiyun. Quan Jingting has Quan Rumu chained up in the dragon cave and tortured. Threatened with Quan Rumu’s life, Long Weiyun seals her powers and follows Quan Jingting to the dragon cave to obtain her demon core for her True Dragon Power. Quan Rumu comes around from the torture, breaks free from the chains, and deals Quan Jingting a single strike stabbing his chest.

Quan Jingting falls to the ground and appears to have been killed. He’s not completely finished, however, and Quan Rumu not checking that he’s completely finished his father before going to Long Weiyun’s side is the mistake he makes. Quan Rumu is blindsided with a strike at his back just after he activated a transport spell to transport himself and Long Weiyun out of the dragon cave and up to the surface. He and Long Weiyun both make it to the surface, but Quan Rumu is in a seriously grave condition. Quan Jingting’s stab ultimately kills Quan Rumu. Long Weiyun is heartbroken. She chooses to go to Quan Rumu and die with exploding her dragon demon core.

Quan Rumu’s death devastates Wangquan Fugui. Black Fox sees her opportunity to break out of the circle is coming and she can see his body becoming her vessel is becoming a reality.

Quan Jingting is confident he’s able to kill Wangquan Fugui not only because he’s acquired True Dragon Power, but also because Wangquan Fugui had already spent his power stopping the myriad blight formation. In a fight against each other, neither have the upper hand on the outset, but Wangquan Fugui gets caught off guard by Quan Jingting’s words that cut deep into Wangquan Fugui’s heart: The most painful thing in the world is wanting to save someone but is unable to save that person. His father is an example and Quan Rumu is another. Wangquan Fugui becomes lost in memories when Quan Jingting brings out the skipping stone he gave to Quan Rumu. It allows Quan Jingting to send Wangquan Fugui a powerful attack. Wangquan Fugui spits up blood and slams into a rock face many metres behind him.

Quan Jingting feels his powerful attack has killed Wangquan Fugui. Victory isn’t yet Quan Jingting’s and it isn’t his in the end. Wangquan Fugui emerges from the cloud of dust and sand. With dragon power flowing through his blood which had streamed into Wangquan Fugui from the attack Quan Jingting dealt him, Wangquan Fugui’s appearance changes to one with white hair. Quan Jingting can’t match Wangquan Fugui’s attacks at all. They are powerful enough to split monument rocks. Quan Jingting has to retreat and hide for a brief time before finding that opportune moment to sneak an attack. However, it fails. Wangquan Fugui’s grip around the dragon spine sword is unshakable and ultimately too strong for Quan Jingting. Wangquan Fugui flings the dragon sword away, snapping it into pieces, before dealing Quan Jingting a single strike sending him to his death.

After the battle, one of Black Fox’s little black foxes, Jiuwei, places Wangquan Fugui in an illusion called the nine-tailed illusion. Wangquan Fugui has to listen to the little black fox manipulate him into joining forces with Black Fox. He wants Wangquan Fugui to see hate as the strongest power and not love. Butler Fei, Quan Rumu, and Long Weiyun is used to push this view through. The little black fox says they died cherishing love. The manipulation fails. Wangquan Fugui tells the little black fox he doesn’t have the right to talk about his life or control his will. He has his own decisions on what is good and what is evil. Wangquan Fugui ends the illusion with a release of his spiritual power and returns to reality.

Though Wangquan Fugui isn’t able to be manipulated into a world of hate, the little black fox manages to plant a seed of hate in Wangquan Fugui with a strand of dark energy. Wangquan Fugui goes into a mind battle of good and evil.

In this mind battle against a darker version of himself, Wangquan Fugui isn’t as confident as his darker self when debating about what the best way is with dealing with Black Fox. Wangquan Fugui’s darker self can’t see how killing Black Fox can achieve peace in the world and not find darkness in people’s hearts. With uncertainty, Wangquan Fugui defends continuing to achieve peace in the world: Darkness is not the only thing in people’s hearts. All the things Black Fox has done has failed. Wangquan Fugui’s darker self points out something to Wangquan Fugui that he hadn’t thought was a possibility: He and Black Fox have something in common. They are sacrifices of the human heart. Told this, Wangquan Fugui is unnerved. Wangquan Fugui won’t acknowledge it when his darker self says the human heart is dark and beyond salvation.

Wangquan Fugui’s darker self gives Wangquan Fugui a suggestion: Become the strongest ruler. He means to take control of everything where even Black Fox submits to him. Wangquan Fugui’s darker self sees that whether it’s Yiqi Alliance, Black Fox, beyond the circle, or inside the circle, he should be the supreme one. To be the supreme one, Wangquan Fugui can’t be soft-hearted. Being soft-hearted doesn’t save anyone just as his father had told him. He wants Wangquan Fugui to trust him, let him be the supreme one and break the circle together. Wangquan Fugui’s darker self’s ultimate meaning is to kill. Wangquan Fugui is enraged by the thought of killing, but he also finds there’s no other way. The darker Wangquan Fugui with dragon power and a trace of hate in him takes control. He executes a plan where a darker strategy is used to end the current situation with Black Fox.

Wangquan Fugui reverts Quanji City back to the state it was before it became a place like Peach Village. He closes Zelan Hall and orders the children to leave the city within three days. He’s cold and unfeeling towards Little Bun—the chongming bird demon child he and Qingtong took in. Wangquan Fugui is intolerant towards disobedience from subordinates. They’re warned to obey through torture. The Asura Hall which Qingtong sealed is reopened again. He has demons (evil-doing ones) brought in to absorb demon power and transformed into a spiritual pearl and stored in a box for later use.

Qingtong is concerned when she finds Wangquan Fugui with the soul-devouring umbrella. The item is evil. It has the ability to disturb the user’s mind and the power to transfer spiritual power absorbed from humans and demons to the user. Qingtong tries to dissuade Wangquan Fugui from using the soul-devouring umbrella and warns of the consequence of backlash. The warning isn’t heeded. With no taboos on him, Wangquan Fugui doesn’t see a possibility for backlash. He asks Qingtong to leave Quanji City.

Wangquan Fugui needs the water-control orb. Fan Yunfei is asked to see him in Quanji City. When Fan Yunfei arrives, after asking Fan Yunfei if he feels indebted to him and Fan Yunfei says he is and is willing to repay it today when he’s asked if he’s willing to repay that debt today, Wangquan Fugui extracts the water-control orb from Fan Yunfei’s body and leaves Fan Yunfei confused by the change of person he’s seeing in Wangquan Fugui.

Qingtong continues to feel worried and concerned about the way Wangquan Fugui is acting. Not only is it because of what just happened to Fan Yunfei, but also because he also indifferently sends the dust-seeker sword towards her and cut her arm because her calming Fan Yunfei down from his confusion was too noisy for him. Harsh words goes from Wangquan Fugui to Qingtong when he finds her still around: “Don’t wait for death. You’re weak and a burden. You’re a pet that shouldn’t disobey its master.” These words which Wangquan Fugui said to deliberately hurt Qingtong carries out its goal to make her feel hurt and leave him. Before she does, she returns Wangquan Fugui words which cut deep as well: He isn’t the Young Master Fugui she knows. The Young Master Fugui she knows didn’t name her Qingtong, or teach her swordsmanship, to be someone’s pet.

The way Wangquan Fugui has been acting, Qingtong can only see him to be possessed by Black Fox. That is until she goes to look at the spiritual pearl that Wangquan Fugui stored in a box. The look of the spiritual pearl Wangquan Fugui obtained from absorbing demon power is different to the look of those she remembered Qingcheng had. This difference has Qingtong see Wangquan Fugui hasn’t been possessed by Black Fox. He is, in fact, carrying out a plan of his.

Wangquan Fugui is fulfilling his father’s ambition of getting rid of Black Fox. With the soul-devouring umbrella that concerned Qingtong with his use of it, Wangquan Fugui has engraved nine spirit-purifying talismans to suppress the hatred coming from Black Fox that he experiences. He is barely staying sober, though.

Getting rid of Black Fox from the world, Wangquan Fugui has a box containing instructions and a map of the location to find Black Fox which his father passed down onto him. To subdue Black Fox, it requires four ancient primordial powers which are sealed inside four magic artefacts. These are the Wangquan sword, The Purest Sun Flame, the water-control orb, and the grief tree seed. The Purest Sun Flame is described to be able to burn Black Fox’s vessels. The water-control orb seals and imprisons all evil. The grief tree seed makes love and power turn into threads that determine fate. Wangquan Fugui has the Wangquan sword, The Purest Sun Flame, as well as the water-control orb after extracting it out of Fan Yunfei. The grief tree seed is the remaining item Wangquan Fugui needs.

The black grief tree seed inside Qingtong has been completely refined to a grief tree seed. She willingly sacrifices her life to give the grief tree seed Wangquan Fugui needs. Going to Wangquan Fugui, she lets him know she’s figured everything out. She requests to be allowed to decide where he will take her grief tree seed. Qingtong chooses the place where everything between her and Wangquan Fugui had begun from—Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai.

The view at Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai is much like the time a beautiful sunset was seen at Wangquan Fugui’s residence, Cold Pool. Watching the beautiful sunset at Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai with Wangquan Fugui is very joyful for Qingtong; however, her end is nearing. Wangquan Fugui presses Qingtong to conclude their time at Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai: “The sunset is beautiful. Your final wish has come true.”

Qingtong has some words she didn’t say previously that she wished to tell Wangquan Fugui before she lets him proceed with extracting the grief tree seed from her body. Where Wangquan Fugui had asked her what plans she had for the future after she gained human form, she tells him now she had actually wanted to say she had hoped he’d always be with her in the future and also thought about taking him away to a far-off place free from chains. She wanted them to spend multiple seasons together and enjoy the world’s sceneries. Though this was what she had hoped for the future, she has no regrets in this life as she’s visited Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai with him.

The time to let Wangquan Fugui take her grief tree seed has come. Qingtong makes a request from Wangquan Fugui to allow her to hug him. Wangquan Fugui doesn’t understand this request of hers, confused by her words she had said not very long ago about him no longer being the person he used to be. It’s for closure. “Love that begins must have an end,” Qingtong says. Wangquan Fugui extends an arm out to allow the hug. Allowing some moments for Qingtong to embrace him, Wangquan Fugui then calls an end to it and begins extracting the grief tree seed. Qingtong is in excruciating pain, but she endures it silently until the tree seed is completely out of her and in Wangquan Fugui’s possession.

With not much life left, Qingtong has words for Wangquan Fugui before she dies: “Don’t look back. Thank you for giving me such a wonderful life. Goodbye, my dear Young Master Fugui.” Qingtong’s life ends. Supporting the now lifeless Qingtong, Wangquan Fugui returns words to those she had just spoken to him: “Qingtong, thank you for what you’ve done for me. I’ll accept your kindness. Joy and Sorrow sect is the place where you should go.”

Black Fox is cautiously believing Wangquan Fugui has been corroded by hate. In order to make sure, Black Fox tests Wangquan Fugui with resurrecting Quan Rumu. Wangquan Fugui does kill the resurrected Quan Rumu. Seeing this, Black Fox is satisfied and confident Wangquan Fugui can help it break out of the circle and offer his body for her to take human form.

Black Fox, therefore, doesn’t sense Wangquan Fugui has a plan to get rid of her and her dark power from the world. All those at the heavenly gate—Feng Tingyun, Fan Yunfei, Li Xueyang, and their army—aren’t aware either. They brace themselves for Third Young Master Aolai’s prophecy to take place. Wangquan Fugui arrives at the heavenly gate and deals thirteen heaven-and-earth strikes with the Wangquan sword, breaking the barrier. An onslaught of Black Fox’s little black foxes rush out from beyond the circle and everyone begins to fight to stop them from going through the heavenly gate and descending onto the world.

Wangquan Fugui enters outside the circle where Black Fox is. Standing before Black Fox, Wangquan Fugui is asked to hand over his body to meet his destiny. Black Fox coveting his body is offensive to Wangquan Fugui. A battle between Wangquan Fugui and Black Fox then begins.

Black Fox changes her appearance to Wangquan Fugui’s father wearing the smiley mask and Wangquan Fugui goes up against the strength of his father at his peak. The attack Black Fox sends Wangquan Fugui is met with Wangquan Fugui’s attack of equal strength. Both land a cut on each other. Black Fox takes up the opportunity to deal Wangquan Fugui a strong attack when Wangquan Fugui’s cut breaks the part of the mask that cover the left eye. With that part of the face revealed, seeing his father, it startles Wangquan Fugui. Wangquan Fugui slams into rocks behind him and he spits blood out from Black Fox’s powerful attack at his chest.

Black Fox now express amusement with Wangquan Fugui’s father’s appearance in plain sight with the mask removed completely. Black Fox expresses amusement towards Wangquan Fugui’s ruthlessness for being able to attack (an impersonation of) his father and show no mercy towards him. It says she and Wangquan Fugui are the same. Wangquan Fugui is asked to hand over his body and avoid the suffering. Wangquan Fugui’s response to Black Fox coveting his body a second time is defiance. If Black Fox wants his body, she’ll have to force him to hand his body over to her.

Wangquan Fugui summons The Purest Sun Flame and sends it towards Black Fox. Black Fox blocks it with its power of hate. She says Wangquan Fugui’s effort is futile: Her power which is channelled from her black grief tree is supplied by all the hate in the world; her power supply is infinitely more than Wangquan Fugui’s.

Wangquan Fugui brings out the water-control orb next and chains Black Fox to the trunk of its tree. It doesn’t trap Black Fox, but it forces her to transform to her original fox form. The change in Black Fox’s form changes the battle at the heavenly gate. The fighters get possessed, causing them to turn on each other, and there’s an unbearable sound making some stop fighting and roll on the ground.

Black Fox seems to have Wangquan Fugui in an inescapable situation when Wangquan Fugui isn’t able to break free from the hold created with the power of hate. Black Fox’s millennium resentment is poured into Wangquan Fugui and it’s overwhelming. Fan Yunfei and the others at the heavenly gate also feel overwhelmed. The little black foxes have strengthened and they are struggling to fight them.

Black Fox marvels at Wangquan Fugui’s body. Describing Wangquan Fugui’s body to be a perfect fit, it shows excitement towards the moment her soul merges with Wangquan Fugui’s and become one and the same with no weaknesses and obsessions. Black Fox is none the wiser. It won’t take place. Black Fox filling Wangquan Fugui with hate is what Wangquan Fugui wants her to do.

Qingtong’s grief tree seed with the power of love activates, breaking Wangquan Fugui free from the entrapment. Black Fox is taken aback by the sight of Wangquan Fugui possessing a grief tree seed instead of the black grief tree seed that she thought Qingtong had.

With the threads of love from the grief tree seed, Wangquan Fugui traps Black Fox in the core of Black Fox’s black grief tree. The powers from the remaining three artefacts is successively summoned to eliminate Black Fox and her dark power from the world. Merging The Purest Sun Flame with the Wangquan sword, a golden pavilion-shaped barrier keeps Wangquan Fugui protected from Black Fox’s attacks. Summoning the water-control orb, the power of hate is absorbed, bringing the battle at the heavenly gate to cease when all the little black foxes are brought into the water-control orb and absorbed. The final step to eliminate Black Fox is Wangquan Fugui channelling his life force into creating a sea of Wangquan sword blades and directing it towards Black Fox.

Black Fox is eliminated. Darkness clears to brightness. Wangquan Fugui channels his last bit of life force into the tree seed Qingtong gave him to bring a grief tree to grow and spread love across the land. Before his life ends and disperses, he returns Fan Yunfei his water-control orb with a message for him to protect the world. Wangquan Fugui wishes Fan Yunfei could create a prosperous world where humans and demons live in harmony.

The final scene in Sword and Beloved has Wangquan Fugui in a realm between life and the afterlife. Qingtong is also there in a state of suspended animation and in her spider form. Wangquan Fugui apologises to Qingtong for arriving late and informs her Black Fox has been destroyed and there will no longer be disaster in the world. Before Wangquan Fugui’s soul disperses, he expresses a few things to Qingtong: Comparing the pain he felt towards the way she looked at him and the backlash from using the soul-devouring umbrella, he found the way she looked at him to be more painful, likening the pain to be an extreme and searing torture which trapped him in a cage of guilt and helplessness with no way out. Wangquan Fugui has no regrets if his soul scatters across six realms. However, he feels deep guilt towards Qingtong. Their love which came from humble origins but had the strength which could brave the storm, face the world, and be sacrificed for the greater good, Wangquan Fugui hopes it can become an eternal lantern that forever illuminates the darkness in the world. If its oil runs out, he has faith that it will reignite somewhere in the world. At that time, he hopes that they can walk together hand in hand, free from burden year after year.

Wangquan Fugui’s soul and Qingtong’s soul disperses. We see Wangquan Fugui’s sword, First Snow, and Qingtong’s sword, Dust-seeker, sit beside each other. A question is asked: “How deep is the love? First Snow asks Dust.”

Sword and Beloved closes with an epilogue showing Qingtong by the tree (that grew from her tree seed, we assume) while off-screen Wangquan Fugui’s voice calls to her. We assume a long time has passed and Wangquan Fugui has reincarnated again and so has Qingtong.

The epilogue left us wishing it to have given a bit more. We feel the ending would have been satisfying if we could see Wangquan Fugui standing there instead of just hearing his voice. With developments in the early episodes that seem to build towards a relationship between Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong, we expected the drama to have some romance happening between them, but both Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong came across as seeing each other as just very important people and not reaching romantic feelings for each other.

There was a moment which Wangquan Fugui looked displeased with the comment made by a raccoon dog demon towards Qingtong, however. This was during when Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong was helping Quan Rumu save his Western Regions friends during The Blue Sky Assembly event. They were trying to figure out a way to get into Xiyun Hall to get to the friends. Qingtong came up with the idea of posing as a dancer to try get information. Where the raccoon dog demon seemed to interact with Qingtong with slight contempt, the dress Qingtong changed into got a compliment from him, saying to Qingtong she looked nice in the dress.

Though Wangquan Fugui couldn’t see the dress—he was still temporarily blind from the previous battle with a snake demon caused by Quan Rumu—he could make out the dress was a dancer’s dress from hearing the sound of the ornaments she wore. It seemed to be Wangquan Fugui finding the raccoon dog demon being disrespectful towards Qingtong with his comment and attention on her. However, Qingtong sounded quite happy with the compliment. Therefore, the displeasure Wangquan Fugui displayed seemed to be a display of jealousy when Wangquan Fugui brought the raccoon dog demon’s attention away from Qingtong and back to the task at hand with saying he has thought of a way to find the entrance to the dungeon. Next, Wangquan Fugui called the raccoon dog demon to come nearer to him. He then knocked the raccoon dog demon backwards with a strike.

The Luming Valley and Huadeng Village section of the drama had some lovely moments between Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong. One was during the scene where Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong made tangyuan for new years and there came a time-stopping and heart-fluttering or flustered moment from a sudden close contact which we usually see in idol romance dramas. The one to cause it is Qingtong and the one to feel it is Wangquan Fugui.

When they joined in the festivities hosted by the family of the Huadeng Village head, Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong kept getting thought of as a loving husband and wife pair. They didn’t feel like one, but we appreciated the comment and seeing Wangquan Fugui not worrying about clearing up the misunderstanding whether it’s because it’s an unimportant matter to clear up or he really doesn’t mind their relationship being misunderstood as being husband and wife.

This section had a happy atmosphere which we enjoyed a lot. A section which wasn’t so enjoyable to watch was when Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong headed to Peach Village to investigate chakuwa. Peach Village was a place of utopia which was also a place of fantasy. In the end, the place just couldn’t coexist in a world where humans and demons can’t coexist yet. It had a sinister atmosphere from the get go.

We couldn’t get into the romance plots surrounding the two pairings in the drama. They were Quan Rumu and Long Weiyun, and Fan Yunfei and Li Xueyang. We didn’t mind Fan Yunfei and Li Xueyang since Fan Yunfei was quite lovable and cute and Li Xueyang was quite awesome as well. However, just couldn’t get into Quan Rumu and Long Weiyun.

The soul-devouring umbrella was something which we couldn’t grasp even though what it does to the user when it’s used and what it needs from the user to use it was told. Doing a quick search on the net to find out more information about this umbrella, we instead came across a discussion about the scene where Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong headed to Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai upon Qingtong’s request before her end. It was quite interesting and we hadn’t noticed it when watching the drama.

The soul-devouring umbrella is able to shield Wangquan Fugui from the hate coming through to him from Black Fox. The shield comes from the nine spirit-purifying talismans that Wangquan Fugui engraved onto the soul-devouring umbrella. The discussion had noted that the soul-devouring umbrella was used when Wangquan Fugui and Qingtong were trekking across the river by boat to get to Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai. When they were at Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai, the soul-devouring umbrella wasn’t used. Wangquan Fugui’s non-use of the umbrella at Bamboo Pavilion by River Huai was mentioned as Wangquan Fugui needing that hate to carry out the extraction of the tree seed from Qingtong and end her life with that.

It got us curious to see when Wangquan Fugui had his umbrella opened and when he had it closed. The soul-devouring umbrella was used when he was extracting the water-control orb from Fan Yunfei. Fan Yunfei was fine after this, so he didn’t need the hate to carry out the task. The umbrella was used when he was fighting possessed individuals in a city outside Quanji City. It was closed after he finished using the umbrella in his attacks against possessed individuals. Wangquan Fugui didn’t open the umbrella back up when a revived Quan Rumu suddenly appeared before him. Looks like Wangquan Fugui needed that hate to kill Quan Rumu. The soul-devouring umbrella was used when Wangquan Fugui entered the heavenly gate where he was blocked by Feng Tingyun and the others. Only after clearing Feng Tingyun and everyone who blocked him from carrying out the thirteen strikes to break the barrier to outside the circle was the umbrella closed, discarded, and no longer needed.

There were a few things in the drama which we thought we probably needed to watch the prequels or the novel. Outside the circle and inside the circle was confusing and we didn’t know what this was. Watching Love in Pavilion helped a bit more to understand it, but we feel watching the previous dramas to these two would probably help understand more of the world in Sword and Beloved.