Previously…
In Fate Chooses You: Drama Recap Episodes 11 to 16, the Chongling Valley arc came to an end. Lu Qianqiao’s next mission was to renew his blood in Beixiang, where everybody else seemed to be heading, too!
Recap Episodes 17 to 23
Episode 17
On the way to Beixiang, Xin Mei and A Sheng discussed their findings. A Sheng deduced that Lu Qianqiao was a scumbag because he had used Xin Mei and later abandoned her. Xin Mei had a different opinion, which was close to the truth. She thought that she had intentionally married Lu Huai to break her curse. When she later learned he was kindhearted, she helped him. The only thing she didn’t understand was why Lu Qianqiao erased her memory.
Lu Qianqiao and the caravan arrived at Yunhan Inn at the same time as Zuo Yingying and her companion, Wen Yin Fa Wang. Xin Mei also arrived with her group. Meanwhile, Bai Zongying and his group enter the area.
Episode 18
Mr. Gui’s father turned out to be a young, good-looking man! He identified Xin Mei as his son’s killer, and she had entered Beixiang. He wanted to deal with her directly. Xia Xuanzi chased Xin Mei down using his black crow.
Zuo Yingying didn’t like the brute Wen Yin Fa Wang, so she proposed a deal with Lu Qianqiao to kill her companion. He agreed, as long as she found the Sun Crossbow for him. Later, her sect brother Lin Muhan arrived. He was not allowed to go to Beixiang by his father, but he sneaked out anyway. Zuo Yingying gave her room happily to Lin Muhan. Lin Muhan then caught up with Lu Qianqiao, telling him about his mission to eliminate the Wushuang Society, a group of demonic cultivators who had plundered his sect’s archives.
Xin Mei and A Sheng rescued a caravan leader from the Bishui Branch prison. From the man, Xin Mei learned that Lu Qianqiao had travelled all the way from Chongling Valley to Beixiang to kill He Zhenbu, the man who had cast the Spell of Utterance on her. Xin Mei was even more determined to find Lu Qianqiao. She asked Taishi Qian, the fortune teller she and A Sheng met during their journey, to help her. After Taishi Qian cast the spell, Xin Mei entered her sea of consciousness to find the spiritual gate that would connect her to Lu Qianqiao.
Episode 19
The blood pact between Xin Mei and Lu Qianqiao reunited them in their spiritual consciousness. Xin Mei explained that she used a teleportation method to find his sea of consciousness by following the blood thread in her heart. He explained that the blood pact was his lifeline, intended to provide a “thread of life” during his trials. Lu Qianqiao asked her why she came, and Xin Mei called him Lu Huai. He realized she had found her missing memory. He had no choice but to admit that he had erased her memory, but he could not tell her much. Xin Mei didn’t have much time left, so she left after asking his whereabouts.
Separately, Lu Qianqiao and Lin Muhan were suspicious of the caravan team members who came with Lu Qianqiao. Lin Muhan suspected that they were members of the Wushuang Society. He couldn’t fight Lu Qianqiao, but that didn’t stop him from figuring things out. Wen Yin Fa Wang was not that patient, though. He covered the entire inn with a golden bell illusion, so that not a single person could escape. Lu Qianqiao cast a spell to stop the unbearable bell sound and shattered the illusion. Wen Yin Fa Wang teamed up with Lin Muhan to fight Lu Qianqiao, but of course, they were no match for him. Lu Qianqiao beat the crap out of Wen Yin Fa Wang. Lin Muhan said quickly that they had to bring the people from the Wushuang Society for trial, since they stole important items from his sect.
Xia Xuanzi found Xin Mei and prepared to kill her. Lu Qianqiao sensed that, so he delegated the rescue of the caravan people to Meishan Jun, and Lu Qianqiao went looking for Xin Mei. However, Wen Yin Fa Wang drank an energy drink, which surged his power. Meishan Jun was unable to fight. Lin Muhan had a change of heart and sided with Meishan Jun to fight Wen Yin Fa Wang.
Lu Qianqiao helped Xin Mei fight Xia Xuanzi through her spiritual root. They defeated Xia Xuanzi by taking advantage of Xia Xuanzi’s cultivation weakness. Lu Qianqiao left to help Meishan Jun and defeated Wen Yin Fa Wang. Zuo Yingying killed Wen Yin Fa Wang and her sect members who came with her, and reported to the sect leader that Lin Muhan killed Wen Yin Fa Wang.
Lu Qianqiao returned to Xin Mei, and she tricked him with a sour candy. When he said it was sweet, she knew he was a War Demon. Apparently, the racial hatred had gone a long time ago, when the War Demons slaughtered her sect brothers and sisters. Lu Qianqiao urged her to kill him, although he had never hurt her but had repeatedly saved her.
Episode 20
At the end, she couldn’t bring herself to kill Lu Qianqiao. He left her to attend to urgent matters. Xin Mei was in tears. Even A Sheng left her to attend to her urgent matters, too. While resting on her journey, Jiang Ji and Nangong Guhong, who were looking for members of the Wushuang Society, found A Sheng and attacked her to avenge being humiliated last time.
Lu Qianqiao kept Lin Muhan as a hostage, not to harm him, but to let Meishan Jun leave with the caravan team without intrusion from Lin Muhan or his sect. While they were eating, Lu Qianqiao suddenly didn’t feel good. It was Ghost Festival today, a day when Lu Qianqiao suffered from a recurring Bloodthirst curse. He left Lin Muhan and staggered through the street. Luckily, his change of condition triggered Chu Ying to appear and rescue him.
Jin Lun joined Jiang Ji and Nangong Guhong and heard that Jiang Ji had killed A Sheng with her sword. He hurried to look for her and found her gravely injured but still alive.
Lu Qianqiao woke up and Chu Ying explained that his symptom was worse at this time because he had a lot on his mind. Lu Qianqiao wanted to find out the identity of Xia Xuanzi. Also, it was still unclear who would be blamed for the death of Wen Yin Fa Wang.
The next day, Lu Qianqiao and Chu Ying went to find an informant who knew about Xia Xuanzi after Lu Qianqiao’s description. Xia Xuanzi had paid a woman to bear him a son. She died after childbirth, but her friend Yao Niang, a dancer, might know more about it. Lu Qianqiao and Chu Ying went to Yao Niang’s workplace, Tianxiang Tower. Little did they know that Xin Mei was also there!
The heartbroken Xin Mei passed out on the street and was picked up by the owner of Tianxiang Tower. When she woke up, the people who guarded her were not her match. The real Yao Ning ran away with her lover. Xin Mei picked up Yao Niang’s mask so she could navigate the place safely. Lu Qianqiao and Chu Ying accidentally identified the wrong dancer as Yao Niang. They gave a lot of money to the girl and treated her well to get info from her. Xin Mei saw them and was very jealous. She drank a lot and was ready to dance on the stage. Although wearing a mask, Lu Qianqiao and Chu Ying knew that the dancer on the stage was Xin Mei.
Episode 21
Lu Qianqiao managed to rescue Xin Mei from her lack of dancing skills and a customer who wanted to drink with her. He didn’t want her to misunderstand him, so he explained that he was not a bad War Demon. He grew up in the Human Race and took a post as a government official. The ones he killed were villains. Lu Qianqiao explained that he was on his way to becoming a human and needed to undergo a gruesome process, including the skin and flesh renewal through the death by a thousand cuts as a death row prisoner. Xin Mei asked Lu Qianqiao to promise her that he would never be a bad War Demon.
Since Yao Niang ran away, there was no reason to find her anymore. Lu Qianqiao focused on finding Xia Yuanzi. He wanted to kill the cultivator now before he undergoes the blood replacement process. He would be weaker by then. Xin Mei was determined to go with him, since she was partly responsible for killing Xia Yuanzi’s son. She asked when he would return her memories, but Chu Ying was the one who erased her memories. Only he could return them. Chu Ying left after Xin Mei and Lu Qianqiao reunited. Since he was created by Lu Qianqiao, his strength was tied to Lu Qianqiao. Chu Ying was weaker now and had to cultivate and rest.
Lu Qianqiao and Xin Mei reunited with Meishan Jun and the Wushuang Society members. Tai Shiqian, the leader of the Society and also the one who helped Xin Mei find Lu Qianqiao with her sea of consciousness, explained about the Society. They followed the Goddess of Wushuang, a mortal who ascended to deity status through Craftsmanship. The Human Race followed the goddess’s path by learning the skills. The Immortal Race became jealous of the Human Race because of the Craftmanship is a power comparable to a god. They killed the scholars and destroyed the sources. The Wushuang Society, who were disguised as the caravan people, wanted to find and copy a precious book, “Unparalleled Secret Magic.” They wanted to enter the Sihe Library in Phoenix City using a classic painting by the famous painter Wu Buquan, but Xiao An, the Rabbit Demon, sold it for the group’s accommodation. It turned out that Lu Qianqiao was the Master Painter! So he painted new paintings for the Society with Xin Mei’s help. He even used her lipstick to paint the sun!
The next day, Lu Qianqiao gave his painting “collection” to the Society. They checked the authenticity, but they thought the painting with the red sun was fake, since Wu Buquan never used color. Lu Qianqiao couldn’t see colors before meeting Xin Mei, so Wu Buquan’s paintings were only black and white. Xin Mei said if they didn’t want it she would keep it!
Jin Lu rescued A Sheng and took her to a cave for healing. He got distracted by seeing her bare skin and lost his concentration! When she was healed, they left the cave, and she felt familiar with the place. It was Qianyan Cave, and it seemed A Sheng had a bad memory with the place.
Episode 22
The Wushuang Society, Xin Mei, and Lu QianQiao had a feast together. Poor Lu Qianqiao still could not taste the yummy food. Because of the curse, everything tasted like rotten food for him. Xin Mei, as an Immortal Race, ended up arguing with some people who were from the Human Race. She stormed out, followed by Lu Qianqiao. They ended up walking at night to cool down. Lu Qianqiao took her to the night market to show her the mural he drew. He revealed his background story. He was the child of a War Demon mother and a human father. His father turned out to be a spy, so his mother killed his father and abandoned him. His then master, Duan Xianyin, rescued him.
Back in Qianyan Cave, we learned before that the cave was the headquarters of the Qinghong Sect. A Sheng and Jinlun overheard the conversation between Xia Xuanzi’s sons in Qianyan Cave and learned that they were going to hunt Xin Mei down. A Sheng shared her backstory with Jin Lun. She was Xia Xuanzi’s slave servant. He tortured every slave horrendously and put Gu bugs in them. A Crazy Taoist prophesied that one of Xia Xuanzi’s sons would become a god, so Xia Xuanzi bore a lot of sons only by paying the mothers and then killed them. The sons were also controlled by Tongxin Curse—a spell that forced them to share his pain and obey him.
Speaking of the devils, these sons arrived in Phoenix City to kill Xin Mei. Six of them were at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages.
Episode 23
Xin Mei and Lu Qianqiao were no match for the group attack. Something unexpected happened, tho! Their attackers suddenly died one by one. Not only them, but also all Xia Xuanzi’s sons in the Qianyan Cave. Lu Qianqiao rushed Xin Mei back to the city and fed Xin Mei with his own blood to heal her.
Who killed Xia Xuanzi’s sons? Who else knew about the Xia’s crazy family, if not the person who knew them personally? It turned out that A Sheng was Xia Xuanzi’s daughter. She knew that her half-brothers’ lives were tied to their Gu bugs. She stole the jar full of bugs and poured hot water into it to kill them. The crazy father knew that his crazy daughter did it, since her lamp was the only one still lit in the cave, while the other lamps belonging to his sons were out. Xia Xuanzi confronted his daughter, just as A Sheng expected. Of course, she was not her father’s match, but A Sheng asked Jin Lun to help her kill Xia Xuanzi. They lured him to the Wushui Cliff. The cliff was tens of thousands of feet high and bottomless. The bottom was covered with a sea of insects, it was hardly for anyone to survive. Unfortunately, even though Xia Xuanzi was weakened by A Sheng’s trick, who knew her father’s weakness, he managed to tie himself to Jin Lun. Jin Lun was dragged together with Xia Xuanzi onto the cliff. A Sheng couldn’t let her father live, so she let go of Jin Lun’s hand. He and Xia Xuanzi fell into the abyss. A Sheng then burned down the cave with a flick of finger, like detonating a bomb.
TL;DR
- Xin Mei found Lu Qianqiao in the sea of consciousness and confronted him about Lu Huai.
- Lu Qianqiao helped Xin Mei defeat her chaser, Xia Xuanzi.
- Lu Qianqiao fought Wen Yin Fa Wang. Zuo Yingying killed him, but framed Lin Muhan.
- Xin Mei couldn’t bring herself to kill Lu Qianqiao. They met again when they were looking for Xia Xuanzi.
- Misunderstanding cleared. Lu Qianqiao and Xin Mei got along, and feelings grew.
- Xia Xuanzi’s sons attacked Lu Qianqiao and Xin Mei, but A Sheng, who was Xia Xuanzi’s daughter, killed them.
- Xia Xuanzi and Jin Lun fell into the abyss.
Did Xia Xuanzi and Jin Lun perish? I doubt it. We still have half of the drama to go. Let’s continue!
