A thread for novel readers (all the spoilers so don’t click if you don’t want to see)

 Loocee:

thank you! this is so painful! did he purposely die in battle or just died because war sucks...? and what happened to xuan after poisoning?

It is not that he wanted to die but he knew he would die, he was too weakened after treating XY the second time, and his army was already a past subsiding in the present, so he would not live when his army fellows were dying, he disguised himself as the General GongGong to attract the army against him, received thousands of arrows, only then they discovered he was Xiang Liu. The next day his blood was black of poison and killed all the living things in the island where the fight happened.

Wettpad

The discussion under novel link has the link.

 XianXiaFan:

I felt like he saved the general to repay him for saving him all those years ago. 

Others mentioned that he was already quite weakened after feeling so much of his soul blood to save XY after the forest attack and then again when she poisoned herself.  Basically they were losing a war and he was no longer strong enough to change that so he used his remaining power to repay general gong gong. This point is a speculation as the novel wasn’t clear on this point so I hope the drama is more clear with why he chose to die in the end. 

Yea, both explanation can apply. He's probably like the 9 tailed fox, everytime a tail is plucked his powers will weaken, for XL a life. 

 Kokuto:

Does the book have some sort of timeline in it?  Or at least date the events / chapters?  Cause I'm having a hard time following just how much time has passed in the show.  Like, when I first started, I had no idea that TSH had spent years living in the Q town with XY at their healing shop.

Yes, they tell you how much time has passed when a certain event happens. You can't tell on the show because everything is quick, when a story ends the next story comes up right away. In the book the transitins are much slower and more relax. 

Yup yup.. Jing has stayed there for 7 years. He's more angsty in the book and XY is more shy around him. You'll understand the scenes and characters more because the author is very descriptive. And you dont have to guess if certain feelings or emotions are there or not, if it's there then the author will describe it to you. if there's none then the author wouldn't describe it that way.

I hope you enjoy the book.

I have questions for book readers. XL's adopted father led a rebel army long before ZX (aka CX in the drama) became a major player on the world scene. Then, ZX went from zero to taking over the world. But, the rebel army continued. They fought ZX to their certain deaths. Wasn't it a lost cause? What was the point? Some kind of principle or history that I don't understand? Pardon my ignorance. But, please tell me what the point was supposed to be.

This affected XL's pursuit of XY. He would never get in a relationship with her, because he knew that he was going to die in the near-ish future. This was a very responsible position to take and one that I think he should have taken. But, why take this position for a lost cause? I'm missing something here. Please help me understand.

Sirry Usly - Thank you so much for your response! It helps a lot!

 Sirry Usly:

XL describes GongGong as being delusional and I think that is the point. He and his fellow army members/comrades are holding on to a lost dream. And atp in the story, they have probably watched so many of their fellow soldiers, etc. die and fought for so long that letting go would be more painful than giving themselves false hope.

Wow. That's a particularly great point. It's sad. I have heard that war can become more about fighting for your fellow brothers than the cause. But, in this case, they did have a cause originally. So, apparently, they lost the forest through the trees at some point. War doesn’t require people to fight to their certain deaths with no other option. A normal response would have been to be happy that their people were living in a better world and to go back to live with them. Then, XL would automatically have been free to pursue XY.

Tong Hua does seem to like the concept of undying loyalty to an army. XL did this for his rebel army. In the prequel, XY’s father did this for his army too. It made XY’s parents enemies on the battlefield and caused them both to “die” in the same battle. Come to think of it, there are other parallels between XL’s situation and XY’s father’s situation too that caused them to be undyingly loyal.

It took me the longest time to figure out that XL would never have pursued a relationship with XY, because of his commitment to his army. I was also slow to realize that XL knew that he would be fighting to his certain death. For example, XL could have asked ZX for anything to save XY’s life. He could have asked him to leave the rebel army alone. But, he didn’t. He asked for a burial place. Why? So, his fellow soldiers could die honorably on the battlefield? But, is it really honorable to die in this case? I would say that it’s more sad than honorable.

The concept of being filial to elders in ancient Chinese culture can be strong too. TSJ pushed back hard against his grandmother. But, he ultimately lost to her on every count. XY readily understood every time he lost too. (I think you’re right about XY.) XL probably didn’t even have an opportunity to push back against Gong Gong, because he had become delusional. So, XL was stuck too.

Please feel free to add to the discussion! I’m probably not the only one interested in your thoughts. Thanks again for helping me think about this stuff!