If you’re feeling lost on a person, place or thing check out the Glossary for a spoiler-free reminder.
TL;DR Version
The only way DFQC is going to make Orchid happy enough to get what he wants is to help her win the Immortal examination so she can be near Chang Heng. He’s ready to break all the rules to give her an advantage but the evil henchwoman from Haishi City is also there to kill her and get back the Destiny Book.
Recap
DFQC is trying to make Orchid happy, and Orchid is misinterpreting it. She sweetly wants to cook him something and then send him back to prison in the Haotian Tower. This is the one thing he won’t do. The only other thing she wants is to pass the Immortal Examination.
When DFQC probes Orchid’s motives, she talks up Chang Heng quite a bit. DFQC is disdainful, realizes that Chang Heng is the person Orchid likes, and is even more unimpressed by her humble wish to just be near him.
Orchid, having decided DFQC’s desire to fix the destiny book is a pretense to get near her, keeps trying to put him off. Finally, like the youngish Immortal she is, she yells at him that Chang Heng is the man she loves and storms off.
In Haishi City the evil Lord learns Orchid is the one who took the Destiny Book. He orders his henchwoman use the Immortal exam to secretly kill her without arousing Chang Heng’s suspicion.
Chang Heng is in her chamber when Orchid wakes up. He just wants to be with her, but she doesn’t have a chance to enjoy this before he reveals it’s really DFQC. Since that didn’t please her, he’s ready to kidnap Chang Heng for her. That’s also a no. He doesn’t think she can pass the exam, and she says that she won’t be happy unless she does.
In the Shuyu Forest, fairy Dan Yin is practicing magic when her father, Lord Li Yuan, shows up. Like Orchid, Dan Yin wants Chang Heng’s love. Her father warns that because of Chang Heng’s engagement with the Xilan goddess, falling in love with her would only be a disaster.
DFQC complains to Shang Que that taking care of Orchid is harder than conquering the 3 realms, but he will make her the happiest woman in the world.
Dan Yin shows up at Siming Hall and Orchid makes DFQC hide. Orchid won’t let her break the rules to look at a Destiny Book so Dan Yin bullies her. A bit of destructive magic causes a strange vortex in the tree that holds the Destiny Books. Looking into it, Dan Yin sees Chang Heng marrying Orchid twice, once as an immortal and once as a mortal. Dan Yin stands on the sidelines both times.
Orchid, who didn’t see into the weird vortex, explains it’s the Tianji Mirror, and it only tells the truth. Dan Yi is furious and mean to Orchid again before storming off. DFQC reappears and offers to kill Dan Yin. That’s another no.
As the fairies gather for the exam, Orchid is getting picked on by everyone again, including a new sus-looking fairy. The higher immortals running the exam show up, including Rong Hao, who teases Chang Heng about his crush.
Chang Heng remembers when he told Orchid about the firefly stone in Shuyu forest. He later gave her the stone under the pretense of not wanting it anymore.
The Immortal examination involves the fairies going into the forest and subduing monsters. There are only 9 monsters and 48 fairies and it’s a pokemon-battle-royal. When asking who will go in first, Orchid flies past Dan Yin to volunteer, having been pushed by an invisible DFQC.
Shang Que feels this task is lowering DFQC and that Orchid is too scared of everything, except maybe DFQC. He offers to catch all the monsters and give them to Orchid, but DFQC says this is overkill.
Instead, they set her up with an adorable mini-polar-bear-looking-pokemon named Ying Zhao. Orchid feeds him to win him over since she can’t use strength. Watching the fairies through the Tianji Mirror, which is also a CCTV camera, Chang Heng praises her too hard in front of Yun Zhong and Rong Hao.
Before Orchid can catch her monster the other fairies gang up on her, which is fine under the exam rules. Their attacks bounce back because of the invisible DFQC. Orchid thinks it’s her own power.
The Haishi city henchwoman shows up and DFQC goes to investigate her. This leaves Shang Que to defend Orchid when the henchwoman turns Ying Zhao into a huge, horrible monster. Chang Heng again doesn’t conceal his concern enough, and Rong Hao helps cover.
Ying Zhao is now a danger to Orchid, Dan Yin, and a group of fairies. They all work together while elsewhere the sus fairy keeps the rest of them from joining. Orchid and her group hide, but Ying Zhao is determined to get to them. Orchid has some rescue ideas that get ignored by the group until she offers to be a decoy.
She sneaks out and cuts herself to get Ying Zhao’s attention, which also gets DFQC’s attention. Dan Yin and the other fairies get the higher immortals to come help, and they go into the forest but don’t find her, even though she’s running screaming through the forest and about to get killed by Ying Zhao.
Thoughts
Probably it says something about my taste in stories, but I feel like I’m more used to the guy misreading signals and assuming the woman is in love with him instead of vice versa. Orchid’s misunderstanding is charming and says something about this poor lonely flower who has been living on her own too long. She still wants to do him a kindness of sorts by encouraging him to go back and serve his time and that there will be other women for him.
At this point in the story, I don’t think either of them has any depth of feeling for the other. But while Orchid is deluding herself about him, DFQC is getting to know the real Orchid. He is even getting a perspective on her that she doesn’t have, seeing how she gets bullied and the way the hierarchy of fairies makes her mistreatment acceptable.
And at the same time, it’s nice to see Orchid starting to stand up for herself. During the Immortal examination, she didn’t back down when all the bullies were going after her and she was willing to be the decoy to save everyone. It’s a little bit of a martyr thing plus DFQC giving her false confidence, but it’s nice to see the beginning of her growth.
I’ve only watched a few Xianxia or Chinese fantasies but man, the fairy immortals are always a little suspect with their ways. The immortal examination involving sending fairies into the forest to get monsters in a pokemon-battle-royal feels a bit shady to me. But in a fun, silly way.