Episode Summary
Fu Sheng and his friends get trapped in a cave that forces them to relive the dark history of the Jibei court through hallucinations. Sun Siming tries to change the past and gets injured, while Wen Yu sacrifices herself in a wedding illusion to save Fu Sheng. The group discovers the cave is a hideout for the old Yulin Army, who reveal that the current Prince Jibei is actually an imposter.
Spoiler Alert
The Cave of Nightmares
Wen Yu is down for the count immediately. Someone hits her from behind in a dark cave. She is out cold. Two masked figures grab her and drag her away. Fu Sheng wakes up in a different part of the cave. He is alone. The silence is heavy. He wanders into a room and sees a performance. The actors vanish into thin air. It is a bad trip.
He finds Gu Tian next. Gu Tian is tied up and getting beaten. He tells the truth about his identity. The torturers do not care. Fu Sheng tries to step in. Gu Tian signals him to stop. He claims these people are crazy. He wants Fu Sheng to run and get help.
Mistaken Identity
The crazy people in the cave stop hitting Gu Tian. They look at Fu Sheng. They think he is Prince Jibei. They bow down to him. Fu Sheng decides to play along. He orders them to keep "Su Rang" (Gu Tian) by his side as a servant. The moment he speaks, the scene dissolves. The people vanish. Fu Sheng realizes the cave is showing him history. It is a guide to the secrets of the Jibei Prince's mansion.
The cave has rules. Fu Sheng misunderstood the history. His chest hurts. He spits blood. The cave poisoned him for getting the plot wrong.
Sun Siming walks into the trap next. He gets pulled into a hallucination. He takes on the role of the King. A teacher whips him. Sun Siming complains about his bad luck. He begs for mercy. The teacher lectures him on governing the country. An actor playing Su Rang walks in. He clears the room. He tells the King he killed two traitors. The King starts to trust him completely.
Rewriting History
Sun Siming snaps out of the vision. He is holding a real knife. He hesitates. He decides to flip the script. He stabs the vision of Su Rang. He thinks he beat the game. He brags to Fu Sheng. He is wrong. The vision resets. The real history is much darker. The original Su Rang held a grudge after a similar attack. He replaced the King with a lookalike. He took control of the puppet.
Tuoba Ruo and the real Su Rang arrive. They see the secret history too. The vision shows the advisor molding a random man to look like the King. Sun Siming pays for his wrong choice. An arrow hits him. He is in pain.
Wen Yu wakes up in a strange room. Someone changed her clothes. Fu Sheng finds her. The cave forces them into a wedding scene. The "King and Queen" must marry. If they refuse, the Queen dies. There is wine on the table. One cup is safe. One is poison. Wen Yu does not hesitate. She drinks the poison. She tells Fu Sheng to leave.
The Old Guard
The illusion pops like a bubble. Wen Yu wakes up for real this time. She is with Gu Tian and Sun Siming. Fu Sheng is gone.
The cave belongs to the old Yulin Army. They found Fu Sheng passed out. They gave him an antidote. The real Su Rang figures it out too. Guo Sishui checks the arrows that hit them earlier. They are twenty-year-old Yulin Army issue. Su Rang orders his men to block the exits. He wants to ambush the old soldiers.
Fu Sheng wakes up with the Yulin Army veterans. They drop a bomb on him. The current Prince Jibei is a fake.
