Episode 16
I'm ready for the pain. *whimpers* Bring it on...
.......
Whyyyy is Zhu Yan's (much shorter) hair fully grey when he was younger? Is my boy vain? Did he start colouring it as he got older? 😂
Okay so young Li Lun is a sulky bitch. I'm getting "teenager forced to come on a family holiday and determined to hate it just because" vibes...
Why do I feel like I know the dragon mountain god somewhere?
*goes to check MDL*
Meh, he's done this and My Journey to You (which I only got a few eps into before getting distracted) and two movies that I've not seen. So, no idea why he seems familiar.
Though for some reason (his styling maybe - with the braids and the hint of moustache?) he is giving me Nie Mingjue vibes...
Ahahahaaaa they knew in advance that Zhu Yin was skanky!! 😁
Gotta say (I have mentioned it before) I am loving the narrative device they keep using in this show where they flash back to a previous scene and show more of it/detail that we didn't get shown the first time around that completely reframes the current scene and shows that they were expecting this and had stuff planned in advance...
But wherrrre is my boy Bai Jui during all this? Ying Lei asked this earlier and Zhuo Yichen said he should be with Pei Sijing... I took that at the time to mean they still had no idea that Sijing is the spy and thought he was somewhere safe with her... but could it mean that they do know/suspect and they maybe sent Bai Jiu after her, knowing she would spot him and (trusting she wouldn't actually hurt or kill him - which is a big risk tbh?) would have to stay and guard him, thus keeping Bai Jiu away from the fight *and* taking Sijing out of the fight?
Aiya... Ying Lei living up to his potential as a mountain god...
Uhoh, dragon boy is fighting back with his weather-controlling powers.
And Li Lun is just standing there not doing shit. 😂 Like... dude... they are all occupied with either holding the area or spell-casting inside it. You could just walk up and stab em and they wouldn't be able to do much to fight you off...
Oh shit no... dragon dude is not controlling the weather... he's making it night time rather than day...
Which means... blood moon
Oh SHIT!
Welp Zhu Yan pulling in all the malicious qi has at least dealt with the creatures outside the gate... but on the other hand you've now got a MUCH bigger problem!!
Well fuck
So the Baize token was what was shackling Li Lun and that's why he wanted it broken... bullshit about breaking the barrier between the wasteland and the mortal world so demons could be free was just the lie he sold Zhu Yin to get him on board (just like the lie he sold Qing Geng - this is his modus operandi)
God this is glorious imagery...
Goddamit though, Zhu Yan has absorbed all the malicious qi and very clearly lost control but all he does for the longest time is just hover there... he doesn't immediately go on an indiscriminate rampage. I can only imagine him spending all that time hovering just... trying to cling to control...?
And the first person he *does* go for is Zhu Yin, who betrayed him and his friends.
Ugh the dismissive ease with which he shrugs off the mountain god's power...
Oh man, the slow deliberate malice in the way he moves...
I shouldn't be finding this expression hot AF, right?
OMG look at how distressed he is - even after everything Li Lun has done - at seeing his friend be sealed...
So... it was *again* a blood moon that caused Zhu Yan to kill Zhao Wan'er? But... where did the blood moon suddenly come from? Or did it appear *because* Zhu Yan started absorbing malicious qi?
The *sound* in this scene... no music at all... just silence and the over-loud, almost distorted-sounding sounds - slosh of the water from Wan'er's footsteps, her breathing, the washing of the waves....
So. Fucking. Atmospheric.
But wait, in this memory he attacks Wen Xiao and (it looks like?) ?breaks her neck? (Or does he just knock her unconscious?) That didn't happen though in the other depictions we've seen of this scene? Is this memory faked/altered? In fact... how the fuck can Li Lun be showing her a "memory" of shit that went down after he was sealed? He wasn't there to see any of this? I call bullshit! Unless... he somehow stole this memory from Zhu Yan?
Oh SHIT is the blood moon where he killed Wan'er the same one in which he attacked Demon Hunting Bureau?!!
This song by Hou Minghao is so melancholy and haunting... and even more playing over this scene...
Oh what the fuck Sijing actually fighting on the side of the good guys? Or is she...?
Also wtf happened to her boss who was outside the gate. Why has he not gotten involved in the latest shenanigans... he wants Zhu Yan's core still, doesn't he?
Oooh baby bro enters the fray!!
Using Ying Lei's blood to fire up the sword?!
Oooh divine blood, demon blood & the Bingyi clan blood on the sword = maximum effort!
Ooooooh is he faking? I've been slightly spoiled about Zhu Yan giving him immunity to his one word spell... are we gonna get another flashback showing that that already happened and Zhuo Yichen is once again pretending to be in a coma to get the upper hand?
Fuck WHAT?!! You end it THERE?!!!
And it's fucking 3am, I cannot watch another episode, I will have to go to bed and SUFFER until tomorrow!!