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TL;DR Version
The most dangerous immortal in the realms is dead, and 30,000 years later a young fairy named Orchid leads a lonely life. Her master is gone, she’s in charge of the Destiny Books that record mans fates, and she’s helplessly in love with the fairy god of war Lord Chang Heng. But when she tries to save her crush’s life, Orchid instead ends up in the prison with the very alive Dongfang Qing Cang, and they’ve swapped bodies.
Recap
The credits are gorgeous, and then there is a short introduction to this fantasy world. Dongfang Qing Cang (hereafter DFQC) became an emotionless monster to get ultimate power, killed his father, and became Moon Supreme of the Moon Tribe. He was stopped by Chi Di Nu Zi, God of War of the Fairy Realm, who killed him and imprisoned his soldiers.
But DFQC’s primordial spirit didn’t die, and if he is resurrected all the realms will be in danger again (and we’ll have an awesome drama). Only the Goddess of Xishan is supposed to be able to stop this catastrophe, but she’s gone missing.
So enough of that, at Siming Hall in Shuiyuntian (the Fairy Realm) a fairy named Orchid explains her life. She’s in charge of the Destiny Books, which look like leaves on a tree. Each leaf tells the story of someone’s life, and she maintains and repairs them.
She’s alone now, but she initially worked under her master, a higher immortal whose fondness for drink led to Orchid’s immortal root being damaged by spilled alcohol. As a result, Orchid is a bit underpowered for an immortal and often mistreated, though her voice-over claims everyone is nice to her we see it’s the opposite. She also has a crush on Lord Chang Heng, the current God of War and an immortal out of her league. She wants to work in Siming Hall a little longer, then work for Lord Chang Heng when he’s back from some immortal missions.
And he’s unexpectedly back early. He’s made strides against the Moon Tribe and claims he’d kill DFQC if he were still around and wants to know why the emperor has brought him back. What Lord Chang Heng and just about everyone else in the Fairy Realm doesn’t know is that DFCQ is still alive, kept captive in the Haotian Tower and held in place by the Haotian Matrix. Unfortunately, DFQC’s primordial spirit is weakening that matrix and Lord Chang Heng is needed to help reinforce it so DFQC can’t escape.
Orchid finds out about Lord Chang Heng’s return from some fairies who’ve shown up to get Destiny Books and be jerks. Orchid isn’t pleased with the abuse, but she quickly gets over it, gets dressed up, and goes out to look for Lord Chang Heng.
She finds him in the forest and tries to give him some flowers. She’s grateful to him, not for his recent military triumphs, but for convincing her master not to toss her after her immortal root got damaged. Lord Chang Heng says he doesn’t remember this, and rejects all the flowers except for a single orchid. He also lets her keep a magical firefly stone that apparently has no magic to it anymore.
Orchid feels encouraged by this interaction and immediately enters into the Immortal Examination so she can work for Lord Chang Heng in the future. For this she is mocked by the other fairies. Back in Siming Hall, she tells her flower friends she needs an elixir to fix her damaged root so she can pass the exam. The flowers are skeptical and think Lord Chang Heng will end up with a more high-class fairy named Dan Yin. But one flower agrees to fund her and tells her where she can steal the rest of the flowers’ money too.
Before she can go get the elixir she’s alerted to an issue with Lord Chang Heng’s Destiny Book. She sees he’s in some kind of danger. Restricted by immortal laws in what she can do but unable to let him die, she goes out to where all the immortals are focused on resealing the Haotian Tower to see what’s happening. When she interferes to keep Lord Chang Heng safe in the only way she thinks she can, she ends up sucked into the tower.
She falls and then flies through the air in what looks like a gorgeous view of space. She’s eventually drawn to a white-haired DFQC so forcefully that their lips come together, they are hit by colorful balls of light and then sucked into a void.
She wakes up in falling snow under a barren tree. She touches it and it lights up green and drops a ton of snow. This causes her to sneeze, and now she’s in the middle of Haotian Tower, looking at herself, not realizing at first that there has been a body swap. She’s in DFQC’s body and he’s in hers, but she doesn’t know he’s DFQC and thinks he’s just an evil immortal.
DFQC, in Orchid’s body, wants her to use his powers to escape. With one hand on her throat, he tells her he’ll kill her if she doesn’t get them out of there.
Thoughts
The first time I watched this I barely tracked any of the information. Now I better see how everything is set up for where it’s going — but I’ll get to that when I get to those episodes.
First, I am a sucker for this setup. An evil bad boy. Yes. A light-hearted fairy with a Cinderella sob-story. Sure. Only, this Cinderella has no qualms about stealing money from her flower friends in order to try and get the job and guy she wants. Even better.
I’ll probably rhapsodize over the looks of this show more in further episodes, but I love the way it looks. The effects don’t always work great, but I actually like the unrealness of them over the hyper-real tendency of a lot of western stuff I’ve seen. It’s very fantastical, and Orchid flying through that starscape with the orbs of light was gorgeous.
Since most of this episode is set-up, I don’t have a lot to say — yet.