Episode Summary
Upon arriving in the Heavenly Realm for her wedding to Bai Jiusi, Li Qingyue is left alone on her wedding night. Determined to find him, she embarks on a perilous journey, surviving an attack in a forest before finally reuniting with a distant Bai Jiusi. Their brief, tense reunion is cut short when she is ordered to leave. While wandering, she is mistaken for another man's runaway bride and forced into a wedding ceremony, only to be interrupted at the last second by Bai Jiusi's dramatic arrival.
Spoiler Alert
Feud: Episode 3 Recap & Spoilers
Li Qingyue arrives in the Heavenly Realm at Cang Lei Hall, but her wedding to the Heavenly Lord, Bai Jiusi, is not the grand affair she imagined. Instead of a lavish ceremony and shared chambers, the steward Cang Tu and a handmaiden named Ning Yan escort her to a surprisingly simple, private courtyard. Confused and a little embarrassed, Qingyue realizes she won't be living with her new husband as she had assumed. After settling her in, Cang Tu reports to Bai Jiusi, whose thoughts drift back to his complicated past with Qingyue.
Left alone, Qingyue waits all night for Bai Jiusi, but he never appears. Her handmaiden, Ning Yan, expects her to be heartbroken and comes to offer comfort, only to find Qingyue is mostly just hungry. Since deities in the Heavenly Realm rarely eat mortal food, Ning Yan offers her some fruit from her personal stash. After a few bites, Qingyue feels her energy completely restored and marvels at the magical properties of the fruit. As it turns out, Ning Yan is a divine tree spirit, and the fruits are a part of her essence.
With a full stomach, Qingyue decides to take matters into her own hands and find Bai Jiusi to consummate their marriage. The only problem is, she can't fly, and the celestial palace is vast with no clear path down the mountain. With the help of Ning Yan's magical vines, Qingyue begins her descent. The journey to Bai Jiusi's palace is said to take ten days on foot. Determined not to have technically spent her wedding night alone, Qingyue vows to stay awake for all ten days and nights of the journey.
That night, her trek leads her into a stone forest where she encounters three brothers who are bound by an old bet to keep their eyes shut. When they learn Qingyue cannot fly, they decide to attack her. Following Ning Yan's earlier advice, Qingyue announces that she is Bai Jiusi's wife, but the warning has no effect; the brothers attack and injure her anyway.
Qingyue awakens to find herself lying on a bed in a large, elegantly simple room. After tending to her wounds with medicine from her pack, she surveys her surroundings. Finding no one else in the room, she cautiously gathers her things to leave. Her exit leads her directly into the main hall, where she unwittingly crashes a formal meeting between Bai Jiusi and the other gods.The assembled deities are initially annoyed by the intrusion until Bai Jiusi formally introduces Li Qingyue as his wife.
Later, alone with Bai Jiusi, Qingyue offers him some fruit she once picked for him, hoping for a connection. The gesture triggers another flashback for Bai Jiusi, who misinterprets her action as a deliberate attempt to manipulate him with their shared past, but her innocent expression shows she has no such intention.
Meanwhile, back in the mortal realm, Zhang Suan continues his diligent training. The spiritual medicine Qingyue gave him has strengthened his body, but it's not powerful enough to repair his damaged spiritual core, the "Ling Hai," preventing him from regaining his former power. His thoughts often drift to Qingyue.
On what is supposed to be their wedding night, Qingyue asks Bai Jiusi when he first fell in love with her, but he refuses to answer. She then shares the story of her tragic life, explaining how she was always overlooked until he came along and showed her what it felt like to be protected. Her words touch him, and for a moment, he is visibly moved.
The next morning, however, Qingyue wakes to find Bai Jiusi gone. Cang Tu arrives, not with a warm greeting, but with some fruit for the road, telling her she must leave, citing protocol. Later, Cang Tu finds a dejected Qingyue trying to fish and informs her that a man named Fan Jiao Jiao is getting married that night. Bai Jiusi is unconcerned by the news, noting that Fan Jiao Jiao takes a new wife every year.
As night falls, Qingyue wanders off and gets lost in a forest. A panicked woman in red rushes past, warning her of a man-eating demon before disappearing. Moments later, Qingyue stumbles into a wedding procession. The party mistakes her for their runaway bride, and before she can explain, they silence her, force her into a wedding sedan, and she faints. She awakens at the wedding ceremony and is dazedly led through the rites. At the final, crucial moment of the vows, Bai Jiusi dramatically appears.
