Dingyun finally does something useful for the first time in his life.
EPISODE 25
When Yetan discovers she’s been tricked by Qingheng and Ziwu, it’s a bit too late; all three Souls are in the house and waiting to have their romantic lunch with her.
Yetan spends the entire time running back and forth, preventing the three men from meeting each other and pleasing each of them at the same time. This includes stuffing her face with all the food they’ve brought.
At one point, when the men are only feet from seeing each other’s faces, she even puts on a dance performance to divert their attention.
Yetan is too quick to deal with it all so Qingheng decides that it is time to go all out. He shoots at a wooden signboard right above Yetan, making it drop. The three Souls all zoom forward to pull her away and boom, they meet. Props to Qingheng, you’ve gotta utilize drama tropes to move the drama forward. In this case, it’s the slo-mo fly-and-catch trope.
Who are you? The three men are in shock.
Qingheng and Ziwu dash over and explain everything in one breath. Of course, it means nothing to the Souls that these two strangers claim to be their brother and sister, what the Souls care about is that Yetan has LIED to them.
Faces drop, hearts broke. They all look at Yetan with disappointment. Meiyouqing can’t believe he burned all his money for THIS.
Back at Dilanjue’s place, Chaofeng has woken up. No more magical powers. Qingkui asks whether he and Consort Xue are willing to retire with her and move somewhere to live a peaceful life. As if they had any other choice.
Chaofeng says yes, albeit unhappily. And I don’t blame him, his entire career is over before it even started.
At that time, Qingku is informed that Yetan is back, and things are not looking good. Yetan has locked herself in her room and not even eating.
When Qingkui is told the whole story, she scolds Qingheng and Ziwu for only thinking of themselves.
Yetan opens the door for Qingkui and they talk. In the end, Yetan makes her decision: she will let the Souls choose what to do; she thinks they deserve better than to be told that their lives have been for nothing.
Qingkui supports her sister. Hey, Chaofeng and I are about to retire too. How about we take the Souls with us and all live a happy life? She offers. Well, I can’t say I agree with Yetan and Qingkui, but we’ll get into that later.
Yetan writes letters of apology that night and sends them to the three Souls, pouring her hearts out and urging them to decide what they want to do. Although… is this a way to insult Lamu or something? I don’t think he can read, can he?
The next morning (could be a couple of days after, we’re not sure), Yetan and the whole gang – including Chaofeng and Consort Xue – wait for the three Souls at a clearing in the nearby woods so they can all leave for a new life.
When it takes longer than expected for the Souls to show up, Chaofeng begins to doubt the Souls will forgive Yetan at all. But Haichao is more optimistic: if Princess Qingkui can still forgive you after the amount of lying you’ve done, boss, there’s hope for everyone.
Haha. Count on Haichao never to let Chaofeng forget the wrongs he has done with Qingkui.
The Void Queen and Dingyun are here! With their troops. People have no choice but to get up their butts and fight. Well, except you, Chaofeng, maybe you should stand back and leave this to the people who did not swallow a chocolate pill.
Qingheng and Ziwu arrive in time to help them despite how they LOCKED the siblings up the other night for disagreeing with them. Apologize to them now, Yetan!
They divide and conquer. But still, the Void’s soldiers are numerous. The three Souls come in just the nick of time to stop a fatal strike from hitting Yetan. They have forgiven her, after all.
But when the Void Queen strikes again, Yetan rushes forward – just like that, with no weapon at all – to defend the Souls and gets hit.
The Souls stop fighting mid-battle and surround Yetan. What’s wrong? Oh, what’s wrong, dear wife?
It goes on for so long that Chaofeng has to shout from the other side of the field for them to get back up and keep fighting. Hellooo? People are getting beaten up here.
Ziwu tells the three Souls to merge so that Youqin can come back and help them all. How to merge? You hold hands, I guess.
As soon as the three Souls join forces, magic happens and yes! The real Youqin is back. He slices and slashes and flicks his hands and the Void Troops collapse.
Youqin aims for the Void Queen, but Dingyun throws himself in front of her and gets struck. He dies. Okay, we can forgive Dingyun for being boring and useless the entire time now, can we?
Youqin takes Yetan and leaves.
At the Heaven Palace, everyone is thrilled that their adorable antisocial prince is back. Except for the Heaven King, he seems uneasy and only relaxes a little when Youqin says he feels exactly the same as before.
When Yetan wakes up, she rushes to see Youqin right away. But he greets her with: your behaviors are unqueenly and you are a disgrace to your position. Er… you’re welcome?
In the Void Realm, the queen is devastated and hellbent on revenge. She summons the army and the Void King just kind of… stands there and lets her (?).
COMMENTS
This drama has been very consistent in developing Yetan’s personality so far. One of her prominent traits is: she loves making decisions for other people, believing that she knows best. She decided that Qingkui needed to run away from her wedding without asking; she decided to revive Youqin despite everyone’s warning that the universe might be thrown off balance as a result, etc.
This is both Yetan’s strength and flaw. Although, the drama has never recognized it as a flaw.
In this episode, it even plays out as if Yetan was a champion of free will.
Yetan wants to give the three Souls a chance to choose. But are they not parts of Youqin? If she truly valued free will, she would want a full Youqin back, fully informed and fully capable of making his own choices.
Instead, Yetan decides on her own that Youqin needs a break from his responsibility and needs a peaceful life, just like 99% of female leads in fantasy stories who believe that they are destined to heal and fix their love interests.
Letting the three Souls make their own decision is not much of a noble act, either. The Souls are all in love with her, and what she wants plays a major role in their decision. This seems more like a way to push the burden onto them because Yetan refuses to see the big picture. Also, what if one of them wants to stay human and the other two want to return to Youqin, and vice versa?
If the drama addresses this issue later on, I will come back here and update. For now, I have to say that Yetan and Qingkui’s logic makes them look more naive than profound.