Episode Summary
Mu Mie struggles with Cuiyu Mingluan's question about which personality he prefers, leading the jealous Red-eyed personality to suppress the Blue-eyed one. Li Quzhuo plans to fix the Golden Lotus artifact and hopes the Summoning Spirit Umbrella within the Golden Dawn artifact can purify Huai Zhu's demonic energy, but the priority is defeating Jiu Huo. In the ensuing battle, despite Jiu Huo's power and smashing the Dragon Blood, Mu Mie and Cuiyu Mingluan intervene, allowing Wangquan Hongye's forces, aided by the recovered Dragon Blood, to injure Jiu Huo severely. However, Huai Zhu reveals she was manipulating everyone, having formed a new, powerful personality feeding on hatred. In a final desperate act, Wangquan Hongye pulls her into the Golden Dawn artifact and sacrifices his life force to power the Summoning Spirit Umbrella, successfully purifying Huai Zhu. The real Dongfang Huai Zhu returns as Wangquan Hongye collapses.
Spoiler Alert
So, we start with Mu Mie, who's clearly got something heavy on his mind. Cuiyu Mingluan (you know, the one with the split personalities) totally gets it and suggests he just ditch the drama surrounding Biluo City and the Yiqi Alliance for some chill mountain-wandering time. Smart lady. But then she hits him with the big question: does he prefer her Blue-eyed version or the Red-eyed one? Mu Mie kinda dodges the question, but his actions (and some later words) scream "Team Blue-eye" to Red-eye. As you can imagine, Red-eye does not take this well and storms off in a huff.
Things escalate quickly between the two personalities. Blue-eye tries to surface, but Red-eye, who's always been the more dominant one and is getting seriously possessive and extreme, shoves her back down. They both dig Mu Mie, but Red-eye's jealousy is off the charts. Blue-eye tries to reason with her, explaining that Mu Mie probably said what he did to push her away and keep her out of danger, especially since Mu Mie isn't the type to just abandon Yang Yitan. But Red-eye isn't hearing it. Instead, she casts a spell to basically force Blue-eye into a permanent magical snooze-fest. Yikes!
Meanwhile, on the main plot front, remember that Golden Lotus artifact? Yeah, it's broken. But the good news is, Li Quzhuo (from 20 years in the future, because time travel!) reckons he can fix it pretty quickly. The bad news is he has no clue how to deal with the demonic energy (Yao Xi) messing with Huai Zhu. Li Quzhuo suspects the Golden Dawn artifact (Jin Chenxi) must have the Huangquan clan's Summoning Spirit Umbrella (Zhaoling Luo San) attached to it. This special umbrella can purify negative energy and might just work on Huai Zhu's demonic vibes.
But first things first: Jiu Huo. He's the big bad behind all this chaos. Li Quzhuo has already sent folks to fetch some Dragon Blood, which is en route. Tomorrow's battle is basically the final showdown, and Wangquan Hongye is dead set on bringing Huai Zhu back, no matter what.
Since Jiu Huo is fresh out of leech demons (long story, probably), he resorts to using his own Huangquan clansmen to power up the Golden Dawn artifact. Gross. Right on schedule (mid-month), Wangquan Hongye, Yang Yitan, and the crew roll up for the fight. Jiu Huo is crazy powerful, though, so even though Team Wangquan has numbers, they aren't exactly winning. It's a stalemate until Li Quzhuo tosses out the Dragon Blood... which Jiu Huo immediately snatches and smashes on the ground. Rude!
Just when things look dicey, Mu Mie and Cuiyu Mingluan show up, jumping into the fray to buy Wangquan Hongye some time. Wangquan Hongye launches another attack, backed up by Yang Yitan and Wangquan Zui. Mu Mie, despite being badly injured, throws himself back into the fight, and finally, they manage to actually hurt Jiu Huo.
Seeing her chance, Cuiyu Mingluan gathers the spilled Dragon Blood from the ground. It's time for the real final battle. Everyone channels their power into one massive sword blast, supercharged by the Dragon Blood, which seriously dampens Jiu Huo's demonic mojo. The attack sends Jiu Huo flying!
Victory, right? WRONG.
Just when you think Team Good Guys has won... BAM! Huai Zhu shows up. Turns out, she's been playing everyone all along. She pretended to be the old Dongfang Huai Zhu still trapped inside, manipulating Wangquan Hongye into fighting Jiu Huo for her. The Huai Zhu standing there now isn't Jialan, and she isn't Dongfang Huai Zhu. She's a completely new personality, born from all the trauma, who basically let Wangquan and Jiu Huo duke it out so she could swoop in and reap the benefits.
This new Huai Zhu has Jialan's power to control demons and literally feeds on hatred, making her incredibly strong. She declares she's her own person, aiming to be the only Mandala flower on the metaphorical Black Bitter Love Tree – nobody's replacement.
Wangquan Hongye, seeing no other option, makes a desperate, last-ditch move. He grabs Huai Zhu and pulls them both into the Golden Dawn artifact. If they can't live together, they'll die together.
Inside the Golden Dawn, Wangquan Hongye spots the Summoning Spirit Umbrella. He remembers Li Quzhuo's words and realizes this might be the only way to purify Huai Zhu. So, he does the ultimate heroic sacrifice: he burns his own life force to fuel his sword, amplifying the umbrella's purifying power. Slowly, the black demonic energy consuming Huai Zhu gets swallowed by golden light and fades away. The hateful, vengeful Huai Zhu disappears... and the real Dongfang Huai Zhu finally returns.
Using the last dregs of his strength, Wangquan Hongye silently wishes for Dongfang Huai Zhu to come back. She holds him as he opens his eyes, completely lost and unable to tell what's real and what's illusion.
