Previously…
As you read in Generation to Generation: Drama Info and Recap Episodes 1 to 5, a lot of bad stuff happened in the present and in the past. Cai Zhou and Mu Qingyan had to investigate both the past and the present to be together.
Recap Episodes 6 to 10
Episode 6
The scholar who was forced to do the face transformation technique was Qian Xueshen, the last descendant of the Qianmian Sect. The sect was famous with their Body Shift technique. Chang Ning and Cai Zhao rescued Fan Xingjia and returned. However, the situation in the sect was in a mess since there were people who were impostors, even Master Qi! While looking at him in the secret dungeon, they found Qian Xueshen chained up and rescued him. Qian Xueshen explained that there were two ways to counter the Body Shift technique: when the impostor died, or by using the saliva of the Snow Scale Beast found only in the snowy mountains.
They staged a trick to reveal the impostor identities. Cai Zhao pretended to accuse Chang Ning of being a demonic spy. He escaped using his giant eagle. She managed to kill a fake Fan Xingjia, but unfortunately, the Master Qi’s impostor was smart and used the real master’s skills to convince the rest that he was real. Cai Zhao didn’t have any choice but to go out looking for the beast with Qian Xueshen. Senior brother Song Shijun created a distraction for the two to escape.
After leaving the sect, down the mountain, Cai Zhao and Qian Xueshen were stopped by a man covering his face with an umbrella, flying from the sky like Mary Poppins. He introduced himself as Mu Qingyan and had waited for them day and night. Upon hearing his voice, Cai Zhao knew he was “Chang Ning” and also knew who a Mu was. She fought him, and Qingyan managed to defend himself. Unable to defeat him, she wanted to leave with Qian Xueshen, but he calmly said that he had poisoned Qian Xueshen, and he would die if Qingyan didn’t give him the antidote. Cai Zhao couldn’t refuse Qingyan’s “forced” invitation to eat wonton. Qingyan explained that he was the young master of Li Sect, and his sect at this moment was seized by a Nie descendant called Nie Zhe, but he would get the sect back as it belonged to the Mu family. When questioned why someone as upright as Uncle Chang would help someone from the demonic sect, Qingyan explained that his father had saved Uncle Chang’s life before. After he fought with Nie Zhe and lost, Qingyan sought refuge at Chang Fort and stayed there. Uncle Chang treated him as his son and promised to protect him. He did… until the end of his life.
Cai Zhao didn’t want to hang out eating wonton with Qingyan, so she asked for the antidote right away. Qingyan didn’t want to give it to her, so she said that it was Qian Xueshen’s fate to die and left. Qingyan gave in and gave her the antidote. Moreover, he offered her a ride on his giant eagle to reach the snowy mountains faster. Days of eagle ride or weeks of horse ride? Cai Zhao was sensible enough to agree to Qingyan’s offer.
Episode 7
Mu Qingyan took care of Cai Zhao’s accommodation in the humble inn, but sent the poor Qian Xueshen to stay at the woodshed! Qingyan explained that his great-grandfather adopted Nie Hengcheng. When his grandfather died young, his father was still young and was uninterested in power. Nie Hengcheng became the interim leader, but then he took over the leadership. Nie Hengcheng mastered the long-lost Mu’s technique called Ziwei Power which was extremely dangerous.
Not sure if Cai Zhao was actually curious about the Li Sect background, or was just to lull Qingyan with her sleeping incense. She didn’t want him to go with her and Qian Xueshen to the mountains. Cai Zhao stole his eagle whistle and the eagle, too! Funnily tho, Qingyan pretended to fall into Cai Zhao trap. The sleeping incense didn’t work for him, but he let her go to “cheer her up”.
I love the eagle CGI and the snow setting!
At the mountain village, Cai Zhao and Qian Xueshen pretended to be a newly engaged couple to avoid the villagers’ suspicion of their mission, but every visitor came for the same reason: to get the Snow Scale Beast’s saliva! While at the inn, two bad guys harassed Cai Zhao. Just before she was about to teach them a lesson, Qingyan made a grand entrance and killed those guys with needles, while lamenting that his fiancée eloped with a pretty boy, lmao! Cai Zhao hushed him right away, because one visitor was a distant relative of her real fiancé, Zhou Yuqi.
Unfortunately, during this perilous mission, Qian Xueshen was killed by a giant snow python! Cai Zhao was so shocked, and I was surprised, too, that the drama gods (aka screenwriters) killed a character who was actually usable for the plot. Cai Zhao also witnessed how people suddenly became wildly greedy to get the saliva. People pretended to be good, but they were actually bad. Qingyan stated an important lesson: in jianghu, only ruthless people survived.
Episode 8
Believing that Mu Qingyan had also died, people said he was killed by the python. Cai Zhao was left defending herself against three greedy people: one was rumored to be killed by her aunt but still alive, one was her fiancé’s distant relative, and a woman who was a spy and worked as the inn’s maid. When she was cornered at the ice cliff, Qingyan suddenly showed up, alive. Not only that, Qian Xueshen was “resurrected”, too. Oh, I forgot he could transform bodies, which he did with someone else just before he died. As for Qingyan, he could make his body too hot with his internal cultivation, and the python couldn’t tolerate it.
Qian Xueshen told them that he came from a humble hunter family who saved those three greedy lot I mentioned above. However, they killed his family to cover up their collusion, and only he survived. While surviving, he met a little python and fed it. They became friends. He also met the master of the Qianmian Sect and became his disciple. Later, he returned home and met his little friend again, but now it was a giant python. He went out to find the demonic sect to avenge his family’s demise, but was caught by the Demonic Camp to use his body transformation skill, until Cai Zhao rescued him.
I dislike real snakes, but the snake CGI is so good, and Qian Xueshen, all in white, looks good, too! He reminds me of Zhang Linghe! But why did he have white hair? Had he lived for a long life, or is he an immortal? (see last scene of this episode)
Qian Xueshen used his flute to lure the giant python out and smeared the bad people with blood, so the python killed them. It killed two of the three bad guys, and one was buried in the avalanche. It almost buried Cai Zhao and Qingyan, too, but they were rescued by the inn proprietress and her husband. They were put in a cave with a romantic vibe. Qingyan was jealous when Cai Zhao asked about Qian Xueshen the first time she woke up. He asked how she could repay him, who saved her life? She said she had no money, only life, and he picked up her innocent offer of “one night of passion,” which was better than no sweetness from her at all. Fortunately, or unfortunately (?), they were interrupted by a noise from outside the cave.
The inn proprietress and her husband were also in the cave, ready to serve them tea. Surprisingly, both had a connection to Luoying Valley. The woman was a disciple of Cai Zhao’s ancestor who went into this place with the wild beasts, which were hunted down by the Beichen Sects. The man was Cai Zhao’s uncle! He told them that Cai Pingshu had once come here with a man wearing a mask, asking about the saliva. Speaking about the beast, the last adult had died, but Qian Xueshen had the dragon’s egg. Yes, they knew him and his family, or his real name was Tao Shu. Together, they set up an inn, and Tao Shu spread rumors of the Snow Scale Beast’s saliva to lure greedy people and the bad guys Tao Shu wanted to avenge. Qingyan deduced that since dragons were sacred animals, and this beast was once saved by Cai Zhao’s ancestor, it must be able to smell the aura of the ancestor. He suggested Cai Zhao try hatching it with her blood. Sure enough, the egg hatched into a cute dragon CGI. After many attempts, they finally got a saliva of it and were ready to return to the Qingque Sect to rescue Master Qi and fellow disciples who were transformed.
Touched by the life stories from the proprietress, her husband, and Tao Shu, Qingyan solemnly asked if Cai Zhao could give up everything for the one she loved. She replied, of course not. She was a girl from the lively Luoying Valley, and she wanted to be the manager of the valley’s business. Qingyan probed further, what if the person was him? She was even unwilling and gave examples of sect masters who lost the entire sect because of their wrong decisions. When she, in turn, asked about him, he said he would give up everything, but she didn’t believe him.
Tao Shu chose not to leave with them but to stay in the mountains with the baby dragon. He said that the Body Shift technique, as well as the Snow Scale Beast, should not return to the world because greedy people coveted them.
Episode 9
When they were back in the Qingque town at the foot of the mountain, Qingyan and Cai Zhao came clean. She knew that when he was “Chang Ning”, he tricked her into the library, looking for the book left by the former sect leader. Once found, he also figured out the Ziwei Power hidden in the book. To cultivate the Power, it needed the Snow Scale Beast’s saliva. That was why he adamantly followed her when she went to the mountains with Qian Xueshen. Qingyan argued that she used him, too, to protect her and Qian Xueshen, because the mission was too dangerous. Qingyan knocked her out before she did. When she woke up in the morning, he was gone. He didn’t take the saliva, though (that means he wouldn’t cultivate the Ziwei Power), and left a token from the Demonic Camp, which he took from the spy lady. That token would be useful for Cai Zhao to go through the villains in the sect. Qingyan even left her wonton! The housekeeper told Cai Zhao that Qinyan went to claim his rightful ownership of the Li Sect.
Cai Zhao returned to the Qingque Sect and rescued everyone transformed, including Master Qi. Whew, this older generation seemed a big mess. It turned out that the impostor of Master Qi was the Qingque Sect’s first disciple, who was once Yin Sulian’s lover, Master Qi’s wife at this time. He was angry because he didn’t become the sect leader, so he wanted to destroy the sect. The guy committed suicide, leaving Yin Sulian mourning for her first love. Meanwhile, the husband, Master Qi, was actually in love with Cai Pingshu, Cai Zhao’s aunt. No wonder he treated her niece so well!
Meanwhile, Mu Qingyan was gathering his troop, people loyal to him, ready to mobilize his power to take over the Li Sect!
Episode 10
All right, this episode introduced new characters relating to Mu Qingyan’s mission to take over the Li Sect, which confused me and the audience.
One of them who stood out was the guy who was now the leader of the Li Sect, Nie Zhe. If you haven’t seen this drama and you saw the picture below, you might recognize him! Another one was Qingyan’s biological mother. Apparently, she was a traitor to her husband and tried to kill Qingyan. Now, she was Nie Zhe’s concubine.
Peter Sheng as Nie Zhe
As for Cai Zhao, she was busy tending her fellow disciples. For those who knew Qian Xueshen, she only told them that the man was killed by the Demonic Camp. One brother, Song Yuzhi, was severely poisoned, so that even the Snow Scale Beast’s saliva didn’t completely cure him. She knew that a rare artifact called the Jade Sunflower could cure Yuzhi, as they had it in Luoying Valley. Unfortunately, her mom said that her aunt returned it to the Li Sect. Cai Zhao told Yuzhi they would just steal it from the demonic sect. Oh no, I guessed that when she and Yuzhi sneak into the sect, they would be discovered by Qingyan, who would make him even more jealous!
Lingbo was very jealous seeing Yuzhi and Cai Zhao getting close. On the other hand, Yuzhi’s father was ecstatic; he didn’t like Lingbo and wanted to break the betrothal between his son and Lingbo. Lingbo’s mother also coaxed her daughter to break up the engagement, stating that since Yuzhi wasn’t completely healed, he might become paralyzed or die soon. Lingbo mocked her mother, marrying someone she didn’t love. As for her, she would marry someone she loved. Well, it seemed this Lingbo started to respect Cai Zhao for her bravery for standing against the villains of the sect, as her aunt did. Let’s see if this character becomes a good character later!
TL;DR
- Mu Qingyan revealed himself to Cai Zhao, but she knew he was never Chang Ning, and had used her since the beginning.
- He hinted at his feelings to her, but she didn’t want to have anything to do with a demonic sect, let alone its young master.
- After the mission in the snowy mountains was accomplished, they parted ways. Cai Zhao returned to save the Qingque Sect, and Mu Qingyan gathered forces to take back the Li Sect from Nie Zhe.
