Confrontations

In this episode we see Senior Yu's dreaded frost curse remove, Master Lei receives a marriage proposal from an unlikely person, and Niang has a violent confrontation with Yin Xue and Ge'er....and Anye Luo finally appears to kill Yin Xue....

1)Yin Xue wakes up to see one of his biggest fantasies come to life: Ge'er is in his bed.  He watches her sleep and when she wakes up (thank goodness there are no silly hysterics) he tells her that she is beautiful like jade.  Ge'er remains incredibly stoic and merely avoids looking him in the eye, and he tries not to laugh as he tells her that he knows he is in her heart, and he never thought the one thing she would fear would be admitting it.  He then uses acupuncture to freeze her and puts her shoes on for her, telling her she should cherish him more because he is the only man who would lower himself to do this.  He then removes the acupuncture, and Yin Xue tells her that it is time to return to Luoyang.

2)MW, Master Lei flees the assassins, and he is badly injured.  As luck would have it, he runs into the Flame Villa marriage gift entourage and hides in a cart, silently swearing to owe one to Ge'er for this spot of luck.  Elswehere, Second Mistress is notified of the failure to detain (or kill?) Master Lei.  Her soldiers admit to feeling uneasy and worried that the Master will be angry he was injured but with confidence she tells them that he has never intervened in the past when she has tried to teach him a lesson (so much for fatherly love).  Niang then reports to the Master that she tried to bring Master Lei back but he fled his responsibilities, which angers his father.  He laments to her that this is his heir, and how much it sucks that their only child--a daughter--died--and Niang merely looks off into the distance looking somewhat out of sorts.

3)MW, at Blossom House Miss Phoenix is stopped by Master Lei.  He offers to give her a ton of silver for her assistance.  She wants to know why he went to her, and he tells her that he likes her temperment and honesty--that she recognized that Wu Xia was scum and would not be taken in by him--and that she is direct.  He also tells her that it is the slick, cunning people he does not like.  This seems to brighten Miss Phoenix up a lot--likely this is the first time someone has honestly told her that they like the personality that everyone else deems rotten and has meant it (i.e. not expecting sexual favors in return).  He asks her to deliver his crest to Ge'er's maid, who recognizes it and goes to visit him.  Master Lei sends Miss Phoenix out, explaining that it is better she know as little as possible for her safety.  Alone with Dieyi, he tells her that Second Madame did this, his father cannot know (which confuses Die Yi but she agrees to be silent) and asks her to tell Ge'er to beware of Niang.  As she leaves, Miss Phoenix essentially tells Die Yi she knows who she is (is she jealous?) before going in to Master Lei.  

4)Master Lei promises to give Miss Phoenix whatever she desires if she agrees to allow him remain with her until he recuperates.  He expects she will ask for money, but Miss Phoenix wants something more.  First she asks if he cares about Die Yi, and all he does is smile, confirming this, so she probably mistakenly thinks he is in love with her.  Then she asks if he is in love with anyone, and he says yes, but she is getting married (Miss D!) and again, Phoenix says this is good.  Because she wants him.  This completely catches him off guard.  Phoenix says she doesn't care if she is not an official wife.  She wants the status that only he can provide.  And she does not care if there is no affection between them.  Lei laments that he has left one trap and entered another...

5)Back in Luoyang, at Senior Yu's palace, Ge'er returns and Die Yi sees her.  She delivers the message that Master Lei wanted, and she promises to go see him after she sees to Senior Yu.  MW, at Blossom House, all the guards drink something, including Die Yi and Hueng (we later learn that this is an antidote).  Niang is updated and receives a report from her spies that Senior Yu is heavily fortifying his palace, and she decides to attack tonight, believing that this is when Yin Xue will attempt to purge Yu of the curse.

6)MW, in an abandoned cabin, Yin Xue, Yu, and Ge'er arrive to begin the frost curse removal while Joakin is outside as guard.  It is a very isolated location.  He tells Ge'er that she cannot let the candles go out because if that happens not even the gods could save Yu.  Back at the palace, Die Yi worries she will not do well (it seems she has been training in martial arts) and she waits together with the two special security guards (Hueng and that other guy).  Yin Xue meanwhile begins to draw the frost out, and everything in the room turns to ice.  He is covered in frost, but has to be doing okay because he manages to wink at Ge'er doing this healing process.

7)Niang and her people arrive to attack.  She is more than okay with going into this hard because Thunderclap Sect will blame, not Dark Palace.  Her lady guard wonders if this might be a trap as they begin to be decimated by Yu's soldiers--and then she is killed.  They completely wipe out Niang's people, and the wave sent to break into Yu's private rooms find only poison gas--they all die.  While checking for survivors, someone drops a bomb and Die Yi and Hueng almost die....Niang is furious.  She tries to find Yin Xue, first going to Blossom House, and then out to the country.....

8)Out in the country, Yin Xue has suceeded in healing Yu.  First Ge'er runs to Yu to ensure he is fine, and Yu thanks Yin Xue.  After seeing he is fine she carefully turns to Yin Xue, and seems uncertain of what to say.  Yin Xue says he is fine knowing that he now has a place in her heart.  She leaves with Yu, who must rest undisturbed for three days otherwise this will all have been a waist, and Joakin will remain behind.  After he sees them off, Yin Xue collapses, and we see that this has taken a HUGE toll on him.

9)Niang arrives (of course) and KO's Joakin before busting inside and finds Yin Xue on the ground.  Yin Xue tries to act calm and collected, discarding the weak appearance of before, however she seems delighted.  Surprisingly, there is a bit of a history with this Niang.....Yin Xue casually discusses Anye Luo, and how everyone knew he was in love with another however this girl stabbed herself in the chest sixteen times....he tells her that he knows who set her senior free and he knows 'all that you craved but could not have' O_o (the more I see him the more I think that Yin Xue really has a DARK history....)

10)Niang accuses him of being arrogant for acting tough when he is very weak, and Yin Xue then calls her and all of her people imbeciles, because all of them are dead but her, and she shrugs this off and states that she could care less.  Then she flips the argument around and asks him why he he won't essentially kill Yu, which would get him out of his way, and make it easier for the girl to love him (I assume because she killed some woman who stood in her way) and Yin Xue cooly says that he isn't that despicable then he freezes her sword, so that she has to drop it but Niang isn't stupid.  She holds her ground and asks him about his gift of foresight and tells him to see if he will die by her hand today and he tells her that he wouldn't let himself be killed by someone so stupid (I kind of choked on laughter).  She then tries to strangle him and he reminds her that even if he would die, the most Anye Luo would do is compliment her and that he will never love her (which only serves to piss her off more)

11)Ge'er shows up and stabs Niang from behind (Ok that makes sense because they couldn't be too far from the castle because Yu would have had to travel back as quickly as possible to rest) and Yin Xue tells her to run.  She engages Niang in a fierce battle, and Niang, weak from the attack, seems to have a very blurry vision.  She can't see well.  However she ultimately seems to come out on top, knocking Ge'er away.  But this only seems to further weaken that mysterious seal (remember way back when Zhan Feng injured her and then Ge'er had a burst of strength...?)  anyways her flame fist is so strong that it seems to burn niang's face.  They take advantage of this distraction and she helps Yin Xue, who can barely walk, run into the woods.

12)Alas, a dark shadow appears and separates them--its the Evil Supreme Master Anye Luo, who promises Yin Xue that he will make Ge'er die a horrific death before giving him what looks like a death punch, and meanwhile Ge'er runs through the woods, calling for Yin Xue...

This episode received a 9.0 for it's pacing, consistency, and continued practice of slowly telling the audience new information in a believable way.  It also brought back in plot lines that are still unresolved, like Ge'er's mysterious power, and forces the viewer to keep watching to get answers.

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