Episode Summary
The team investigates the mysterious deaths by consulting an insect expert, leading them to a master of illusions and the hallucinogenic Posuo Flower. They uncover the Night Devil's grand plan to turn the Emperor into a monster during a public ceremony. By understanding the science behind the illusions, Xiao Beiming foils the plot, exposes how the Night Devil faked his own death, and gets a lead on his current whereabouts.
Spoiler Alert
The investigation into the strange deaths of Wu Zhui and Wu Lie leads Xiao Beiming and his team to Chessboard Alley, home to an eccentric official named Feng Bamao. Feng Bamao works for the Rat and Ant Department, which manages all pest control in the Capital, and he has a peculiar affinity for bugs. Inside his insect-filled home, Feng Bamao examines the strange insects found on the victims' bodies. He quickly determines they died from extreme excitement—essentially, they "died of pleasure." A faint memory leads him and Feng Qingzhuo to search through his records, where they uncover a similar case connected to the Yunji Palace.
The palace was the residence of Daoist Master Yunji, a foreign Taoist master skilled in illusions who used to perform for the imperial court. When the team arrives, they find not a grand palace but a humble grass hut, much to Feng Qingzhuo's disappointment. A search of the premises reveals a secret room, discovered simultaneously by Xiao Beiming and Zhuge Tong. Meanwhile, Feng Qingzhuo notices that Posuo Flowers were once grown in the yard. This flower acts as both a painkiller and a paralytic, capable of inducing powerful hallucinations. They realize this flower is the key to the illusions everyone has been seeing.
The team deduces that the Night Devil must need a large supply of the flowers and begins searching various markets. They quickly find and interrogate several suspicious individuals who confess to being paid to purchase the flowers. They never saw the buyer, only that they dropped the flowers off at a courtyard in the North City in exchange for money. Zhuge Kongyun rushes to the courtyard but arrives too late, finding only a few scattered flower petals.
At the same time, Zhong Xueman's investigation in the Ghost Market reveals that someone is also buying up Posuo Flowers there. Feng Qingzhuo puts the pieces together: processing the flowers into powder would attract a swarm of insects, alerting the authorities. To avoid this, the Night Devil's accomplices are likely refining the powder in a pharmacy within the Ghost Market, where such activities would go unnoticed by officials.
Xiao Beiming returns to the execution ground, re-enacting the Night Devil's supposed beheading. He has a sudden epiphany and rushes back to the government office, marking the locations of the Four Symbols Case on a map. His theory is confirmed when the Emperor, seeking to calm the public, announces a memorial ceremony to be held at the Altar of Heaven. Xiao Beiming realizes this is precisely what the Night Devil has been planning. The villain intends to use the ceremony to force the Emperor to consume a Swift Wind Pill in front of all the court officials, turning him into a monster. This would validate the dark rumors, allowing the Night Devil to ascend as a god and seize control of the Great Qi dynasty.
As the ceremony begins, Feng Qingzhuo distributes medicated bamboo sticks to test for poison. As predicted, colorful clouds appear in the sky, forming words that denounce the Emperor. But just as panic sets in, the illusion abruptly stops. Xiao Beiming's team has found the perpetrators. Daoist Master Yunji, the illusionist, claims he was kidnapped by the Night Devil and forced to create the spectacle. At Xiao Beiming's command, he dispels the illusion, while Zhuge Kongyun loudly proclaims that the Night Devil has been defeated, earning cheers and prayers from the relieved public.
Xiao Beiming explains how the trick was done. The "colorful clouds" were merely powder scattered from a high place, with the image of a mythical beast projected onto it using light refraction. The Posuo Flower was used to incapacitate the crowd's senses, making them believe the illusion was real.
He further reveals his final deductions: the executioner was allied with the Night Devil, and they used the chaos of the beheading to stage an escape. The "Fire Phoenix" that Zhong Xueman witnessed was never real; she was hypnotized by the Night Devil, who implanted the false memory. The hypnotized guards allowed the Night Devil to escape, kill Wu Lie, and create the fake phoenix attack. With the plot unraveled, Daoist Master Yunji confesses that he knows the Night Devil's hiding place—the very same location where he was held captive.
