When last we left our problematic secondary characters, our 2FL saved her dad but is still under suspicion by our 2ML.
Miao Miao gets the plot yanked out from under her again
She thinks they’re going to the Imperial Capital. They’re not going to the Imperial Capital. They’re at some run-down inn.
Miao Miao wants to return to the book plot and asks Mu Yao if they can go to the capital. This gets her a lecture on the dangerous life of demon catchers. If Miao Miao can learn to protect herself, Mu Yao will take her to the capital.
At breakfast, Sheng becomes Miao Miao’s teacher, but he’s not trying hard. He gives her a … gourd? As a magical weapon. She uses it to make a spark. Once.
New tactic, try to win Sheng over
Miao Miao hopes to use their master/disciple relationship, a classic romance setup, to her favor. She’s terrible, inexplicably setting up his bed with towel animals. He incinerates them.
Next, she gets another demonology lesson. There are 7 levels of demon catchers that fit into 4 groupings, Heavenly, Earthly, Black, and Yellow. Yellow Inferior are the worst and Heavenly Demon Catchers are awesome at everything.
There has only ever been 1 Heavenly Demon Catcher, a Mu ancestor. Twenty years ago there was a prophesy that another would appear, but then the Resentful Woman appeared.
If Mu Yao defeats the Resentful Woman and gets her demon core, she could be a Heavenly Demon Catcher. Miao Miao thinks Mu Yao or Fu Yi will be the next one. To Sheng’s annoyance, she doesn’t think he has a chance since he’s only Black Superiority.
She tries whining and obeying him but both cause her favorability to drop. Fair.
And then things get exciting
Miao Miao practices magic alone in the courtyard when a pot of water turns into black smoke and grabs her. In his room, Sheng wakes up to something strange going on with his tea.
Outside he fights the water demon. It uses Miao Miao as a shield and wants to trade her for Sheng’s blood. Sheng acts like he doesn’t care but they have a secret eye conversation and she ducks so he can attack. He gets cut protecting her and the demon takes his blood.
His blood is not pure, but half-demon. Miao Miao already knew this but it wasn’t revealed until the end of the book. That does sound lame.
Sheng flips them into the Reflection Domain, a desaturated mirror universe. They fight, but Sheng is weaker here. He took them there so his sister wouldn’t learn his secret. He’d rather die.
The demon seriously injures Sheng and mocks him for his weakness. Miao Miao yells at him not to listen. The demon is about to kill Sheng when his Heart Lake lotus lights up, he yells, and his sword flies through the demon.
The lotus dissolves and Sheng spits blood. Now he doesn’t have the energy to return them to the regular world.
Miao Miao won’t let him give up! He’s too important to the plot.
She tears up the return talisman he gives her and refuses to take his blood back to his sister. He thinks if Mu Yao knows he’s half-demon, no one will be too sad. But Miao Miao cries that she cares about him too and it doesn’t matter he’s a demon. She wants to know what to do to save him.
His lotus reappears. He’s shocked and confused but has her take off his hairband. First, it flings her away, but she crawls back and grabs it firmly. Once it’s off he turns into smoke and fire.
He yells and we fly into some fire tunnel. His hair is gray. He asks her if she’s afraid and she shakes her head and collapses.
Real-life Miao Miao, as a child, wakes up in an empty school room to an apple sliced like a bunny. Fantasy Miao Miao wakes up to the same apple piece. Sheng is there and she yanks at his clothes to check if he’s okay. He gets flustered and leaves. She thinks he’s cute when shy.
Wow, now he likes her 85%. Er, nope, 8.5%. Still. Progress.
Sheng returns to demand to know why she risked her life to save him and if she really cares about him. Miao Miao feels guilty because she said that because she needs him alive to get home.
She tells him she saved him because he’s her master. He thinks it’s all nonsense.
This doesn’t mean he’ll make things easier for her
When Miao Miao asks about the headband, he explains that when he takes it off his mind gets blurry and strange. The more he does it the more he feels the demonic energy growing and is afraid the hairband won’t control it one day. He isn’t comfortable talking about it.
He stares and she acts cute and suddenly she’s at 20% and getting a hug. Then, he apologizes and says he knows she accepts him and isn’t afraid. But his sister won’t accept him.
So he puts a talisman on Miao Miao’s back and magics her into going home. She’ll be an official’s daughter again and they’ll never meet.
The next morning Mu Yao and Fu Yi learn she left for home. They have no idea what happened with her and Sheng, and don’t question anything.
But Miao Miao and Li Yun have different homes
So Miao Miao is not heading where they came from, but east, towards a bamboo forest with a demon in it. When they learn this, Sheng panics.
Miao Miao falls into a big hole in the forest. The talisman comes off and a giant bamboo root talks to her. It’s a thousand-year-old Sky-Swallowing Great Demon and wants to turn her into “clothes”. Which are dead humans hanging from its branches. Cute.
But when one of the “dead people” drops, she sees it’s just a straw scarecrow. The demon is a little child bamboo demon, who wanted to frighten her away. When Sheng shows up, it turns into a bamboo shoot.
Miao Miao protects the little demon from Sheng, and they go to the surface. Mu Yao and Fu Yi are upset she left without saying goodbye. Miao Miao covers for Sheng, claiming she went out to practice magic.
Back at the inn, Miao Miao isn’t in the mood to be nice to Sheng
This increases her favorability by 1%. Encouraged, she continues to neglect him. When Fu Yi gives her an amulet of protection she rejects it, favorability goes down, accepts it, favorability goes up, but gets too eager, and favorability goes back down. Poor Miao Miao, Sheng is complicated.
Sheng wants to know why she didn’t tell his sister the truth. She points out that he wants her silent. He points out he could kill her to make her silent, he wanted her to go home.
She tells him not to repay kindness with hostility and asks him not to drive her away again. He won’t, and threatens not to forgive her if she leaks the secret. Big threat. He gives her a ring as a magic weapon, one he made that’ll help her focus energy.
He drags her out to practice so she can protect herself in the future and puts the ring on her. Romantic!
And we’re out!
That got GOOD
I love the Reflection Domain. Every time we cut to the real world and saw them reflected in the water it looked great. It was also great that Miao Miao’s hair became such a mess when she fell in the forest.
The part where Sheng turned into his demon form reminded me of DFQC in Love Between Fairy and Devil dramatically rescuing Orchid from the Heavenly Court. It comes at about the same time in the story too.
Fantasy shows like this need big, dramatic moments but they also need a good build-up to them. Except for his entrance, Sheng hasn’t done anything impressive. We even learn he’s only a mid-level demon catcher in this episode.
Then he’s at his lowest, desperate, and near death before he gets to be Super Cool and Awesome. Perfect.
And now it feels earned that Sheng is softening to Miao Miao. Those earlier moments, with her flying the lantern or seeing her worry about her dad, were nice but not big enough. Her risking her life for him? Now he should soften.
It is funny that when saving him she was only playing a part to keep the story going. Yet, I doubt that Miao Miao would have wanted to let Sheng die anyway. She may have overstated how she cared for him, but she wished for peace with the lantern and protected the bamboo demon. I doubt Miao Miao wants anyone to suffer.
I’m curious how real Miao Miao versus game Miao Miao will come out. Not once has she tried to be Lin Yu, but she’s been forced. What would Miao Miao do if not being pushed around by the game? Will there be a time when she goes against the game despite risks to herself? I’m looking forward to finding out.
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