Love Better than Immortality (天雷一部之春花秋月): Episode 28

~ Rebellion at Qian Yue Cave ~

Synopsis:

Qiu Yue heals Gu Xing Zhu. Upon regaining consciousness, Gu Xing Zhu apologises and thanks Qiu Yue for saving his life, saying that he was willing to keep watch while Qiu Yue recuperated his damaged internal energy. Qiu Yue questions how he knew about this, ordering him to seal his own acupoints. Gu Xing Zhu instead shoots a hidden weapon and Qiu Yue deflects it, stepping in front of Chun Hua. The hidden weapon lodges itself into a wall behind them, no trace of blood on it. As Gu Xing Zhu stands with a smirk on his face, Chuan Qi Valley disciples storm the main hall.

Gu Xing Zhu tells Chuan Qi Valley’s men that Qiu Yue was currently at 30-40% of his powers and might have also been hurt by his hidden weapon. He gloats about winning the gamble, that someone as clever as Qiu Yue would fall for his trap just because he listened to a foolish woman like Chun Hua. Hearing this, Chun Hua shoots a helpless gaze at Qiu Yue before she remembers and takes out the command seal Fu Lou had given her. Fu Lou’s former right hand man and leader of the rebels scoffs, saying that since Fu Lou had died, the seal didn’t hold any authority anymore. At that moment, Ye Xing Zhu arrives, killing some of the rebels that were in her way. When Qiu Yue comments on her timely arrival and brushes off her explanation, Gu Xing Zhu tells her that since she liked the master, he would become the master, and charged towards Qiu Yue. With a hit to Gu Xing Zhu’s chest, Qiu Yue effortlessly sends him tumbling back into some of the rebels. On the ground, Gu Xing Zhu hollers at the rebels to make their move and Chun Hua quickly tries to mitigate the situation by telling the rebels not to follow Gu Xing Zhu because he couldn’t even fend for himself, adding that even though Qiu Yue had suffered damage to his vital energy, he could still deal with them easily.

Qiu Yue steps forward and after taking a glance at all the rebels, he told them that they all had to die. The rebels help Gu Xing Zhu up and he questioned if Qiu Yue had pretended to be weakened in order to lure them out. The rebel’s leader then pipes up, telling Qiu Yue that he had gone overboard by imprisoning the Chuan Qi Valley disciples that had sought shelter at Qian Yue Cave. Qiu Yue replies that Chuan Qi Valley was no more since they had pledged allegiance to Qian Yue Cave, adding that if he hadn’t imprisoned those disciples, there would be a larger number of rebels. Qiu Yue then surmised that Gu Xing Zhu must have promised to return control of Chuan Qi Valley to them after they succeeded. The leader of the rebels soon crack, telling Qiu Yue that Gu Xing Zhu had instigated the whole rebellion. Gu Xing Zhu cuts him off, telling all of them that with Qiu Yue’s character, he would never let them off, ordering them to attack.

A fight ensues and the Chuan Qi Valley disciples fell, one by one. The rebel’s leader saw that Chun Hua was alone in the open and raised his weapon towards her but was stopped when Qiu Yue caught him in a chokehold. Gu Xing Zhu soon realises that he was fighting a losing battle and quickly escapes. The rebels were soon defeated and Qiu Yue tells Ye Xing Zhu to clean up the mess and stand guard while he took a few hours to recuperate.

Meanwhile, Liu Feng and Leng Ning enter a jewellery store and the shopkeeper suggests they got a pair of jade pendants. After listening to a few cheeky comments from Liu Feng, the store owner who initially saw them as friends soon had the misconception that they were sworn brothers, then a couple. When Leng Ning tried to protest, Liu Feng held her hand and told her that he would listen to her, they wouldn’t get the pendants anymore. Leng Ning protested, telling him that she would’ve followed him in vain, before realising how her words sounded and stopping herself.

Later, they take a break from their investigations and entered a restaurant. Leng Ning orders a plethora of dishes, telling Liu Feng that she had no plans to stuff herself when he asked if she could finish everything. Liu Feng soon notices someone at a nearby table and grabs Leng Ning’s hand to alert her before writing a message on the table with water. They then started to converse in purposefully loud voices, mentioning the silver needles that could control puppets that they had found at the Longevity Fruit auction. The silver needles were the Medical Sage’s special hidden weapon that could control dead bodies. The unknown man takes an interest in their conversation and smirks when Leng Ning stood to leave when he took out his money and called for the waiter. Leng Ning stood frozen at a loss of what to do when the unknown man ordered another bottle of wine and Liu Feng smiles as he helped her out, telling her not to be in such a haste to leave as they had yet to settle their bill.

As Leng Ning settles back into her seat, she asked Liu Feng why he would be so grudging to treat her to this meal when he was loaded. Liu Feng replies that that wasn’t the case, money was merely worldly possessions^[1]…and as such, he didn’t have any on him because he had spent all his money on the jade pendants. When Leng Ning realised that she too didn’t have enough money, Liu Feng catches a fly with a pair of chopsticks and drops it into their soup before calling for the waiter. The duo then leave the restaurant and stood watch from opposite the entrance. They soon sense a presence behind them and turn around – then the camera cuts out.

Later, Liu Feng and Leng Ning return to Feng Ming Manor and meet up with Xiao Bai and Cai Cai. Liu Feng explains that right after publicly talking about the silver needle in the restaurant, someone tried to kill them. Luckily, they were prepared but the person used a medicine powder that blinded them. However, Liu Feng managed to grab a pouch of silver needles from the person’s sleeves before he used the powder. Later, after further investigation, they uncovered the man’s identity – Li Yu, one of the Medical Sage’s disciple that lived in Ba Xian Residence. He was a former gambler and Ba Xian Residence’s men had rescued him just as he was being beaten to his dying breath by his creditors. Xiao Bai comments that they had to return to the scene of the Medical Sage’s murder.

Back at Qian Yue Cave, Chun Hua follows Qiu Yue back to his room and seeing his increasingly pale face, asked if he was alright. Qiu Yue doesn’t reply but as he stepped into his room, he falls to the ground, unconscious. Chun Hua anxiously shakes and calls out to him, before realising that he was bleeding from an injury to his back. After more frantic shaking and shouting for him to wake up, Qiu Yue stirs, telling her to call him Ge Ge. Chun Hua is visibly relieved and moves to help him onto his bed but Gu Xing Zhu suddenly appears and although he was injured, Qiu Yue manages to deflect his attack before counter attacking and disappearing from the scene with Chun Hua.

Qiu Yue has an arm around Chun Hua as they struggle along a tunnel in the cave. He tells her that Gu Xing Zhu wouldn’t be able to catch up to them because the door couldn’t be opened once it was closed from the inside. Chun Hua then asked if he was still doing alright and frowns when he replies that it’ll be easier for her to kill him now. He then suggests that she leaves, telling her that he would arrange for Ye Xing Zhu to escort her because Gu Xing Zhu wouldn’t hurt her but Chun Hua makes up an excuse that she didn’t dare to leave because it was too dark. She then questioned if he had already known about Gu Xing Zhu’s scheme, asking why he would be so foolish. With a weak sigh, Qiu Yue tells her that he did that because she wanted him to save Gu Xing Zhu. Chun Hua then puts a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture but feeling his temperature, she asked why he was so cold to the touch. It turns out that his vital energy had backfired on him when he had saved Chun Hua from Gu Xing Zhu’s attack.

Qiu Yue then tells her that since she had caused him to be in this tragic situation, she should make it up to him. Chun Hua readily agrees but when Qiu Yue tells her that he needed to nourish his Yang energy^[2], she moved away from slightly and retorted that he was speaking nonsense as she clutched her clothes. Qiu Yue teases her a little more, asking if she was unwilling to save him, before clarifying that he needed to gather the world’s cold Yin energy. Angry that he had been messing around with her, Chun Hua storms away but hesitates when Qiu Yue stopped calling after her. She returned to see him motionless and starts to shake and call out to him once more. Qiu Yue smiles, lifting his head to look into her eyes as he told her that he knew she wouldn’t leave him behind. Chun Hua was dazed for a moment before she angrily exclaims that he was badly injured and didn’t have any trustworthy person by his side. Qiu Yue tells her that he did, he had her.

Chun Hua helps Qiu Yue into the ice gorge and settles him on the ground. When she asked why it was so cold, Qiu Yue told her that he didn’t like this place because he had been confined here for over ten years and only Qian Yue Cave’s leader knew of this place. When Chun Hua comments that she doesn’t belong at Qian Yue Cave, implying that she shouldn’t be there, Qiu Yue replies that she wasn’t the first, before losing consciousness again. Chun Hua starts to shake him again, before ripping up a portion of her dress to help to stem the bleeding, but seeing that he still wasn’t waking, she recalls that he had once told her that he would grant her wish (Mid-Autumn Festival, Episode 8) so she made a wish that he would wake up. Qiu Yue soon stirs and after Chun Hua helps him to sit up leaning against her, he complements her new dress, assuring her that even though he couldn’t use his powers to heal himself right now, he would recover in a few days. Chun Hua then asked if he was feeling cold and when he replied that he wasn’t afraid of the cold, she puts her arms around him and he smiles, telling her that she treated him well. Chun Hua starts to worry at the prospect of how they would survive in this cold place without warmth or food and Qiu Yue misunderstands that she didn’t want to stay in the ice gorge with him so he told her about a secret exit she could leave from. When Chun Hua leaves his side to head for the exit, the initial shock and devastation in his eyes turn to anger and hurt and he conjures a ball of energy/light. At that moment, Chun Hua turned around to ask what he wanted to eat and he paused in shock for a moment as the ball of light faded, before a relieved smile made its way onto his face and he replied that anything she made was fine.

The next day, Xiao Bai, Liu Feng, Cai Cai and Leng Ning arrive at the Medical Sage’s residence. They stood outside as they discussed whether it was alright for them to barge in, with Leng Ning saying that it was perfectly justifiable because Feng Ming Manor was the leader of the martial arts circles and was there to investigate the Medical Sage’s death. When she turned to Xiao Bai for affirmation, they all realise that he had zoned out. As Xiao Bai reminisced the moments he shared with Chun Hua when they first met, his Xiao Xiao Feng Ming Sword flew out of its scabbard and planted itself into the sand, upright. Cai Cai then tells him that the Medical Sage, her father and Chun Hua had countless ties to the Longevity Fruit, encouraging him that if they could solve this puzzle, the misunderstanding between him and Chun Hua should disappear. Xiao Bai replies that he will not hold on to the one who abandoned and left him, telling his three friends that he would rather cherish them…especially “you”.

Footnotes:

^{1. I would just like to explain this part because the translations on the video from youtube doesn’t do this part justice and I would just like to share the humour because I died laughing at this part. Liu Feng said ‘身外之物’ which means ‘worldly possessions’ but if translated literally, it means ‘something that is separate from one’s body’. So now：
LN: You’re so rich, can’t you treat me to this meal?
LF: That’s not it, money is just worldly possessions (separate from my body)
LN: That’s right.
LF: Money is separate from my body (merely worldly possessions), so my purse is currently empty.↩}

^{2. 采阴补阳 (cǎi yīn bǔ yáng) means to take the Yin (female energy) to nourish the Yang (male energy). Can also refer to…the baby making deed. Which explains Chun Hua’s reaction of exclaiming that he was spouting nonsense.↩}

Thoughts:

It’s honestly kind of funny, how Qiu Yue keeps waking and fainting and waking again. Is he just forcing himself to stay conscious because he’s worried about Chun Hua? Also, Chun Hua’s reaction whenever Qiu Yue faints is kind of…dumb? I don’t see how violent shaking and hollering at an unconscious person is suppose to be of any help. And…the third time she wakes him up with a wish? Like what? 😂

Qiu Yue has been good for quite a few episodes but now I’m shook again. Was he going to kill Chun Hua if she left? What else could the light ball be for? Suicide?!

XB: “I’m more willing to treasure you guys…especially you.” Was Xiao Bai referring to Cai Cai? So…Xiao Bai finally sees Cai Cai’s merits and wants to marry her instead? Or is he just so hurt that he has shut off his heart and his actions are now commanded by his brain only?

(Forgive my word vomit, I had told myself to keep the posts short but I had too many feels with this episode)

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