The following is a semi recap plus review plus opinion on the specific episodes, emphasising more on the review than the recap. Spoilers alert and highly opinionated. Read at your peril.
Zixun is a proud person. I can't give her my love, she doesn't need my coldness. My only hope is she will learn to let go - Bai Zihua
This feels like a filler episode but some new characters that are relevant to the story. I decided to pace myself, an episode at a time because there are just too many names to recap.
This episode you will meet a man who looks cold, who looks harsh, who looks quite scary but oh my god, the attention to his costume, head gear, hair, etc all fit this character perfectly.
Meet Wugou, one of the 5 immortals that BZH calls brother or friend and seems to run a sealed city called Lian Chang. Not Lian Cheng ok? Well looks severe doesn't he? And in one scene when meeting BZH, he kinda summarise what each of the 5 immortals are doing. For example;
Tanfan has run away. Zixun is still miserably in love with BZH and it seems everyone knows. But BZH answered that query with the quote I have chosen as quote of this episode. Donghua, the guy who killed Dongfang's dead is missing. BZH is in a job he doesn't want for reasons that not quite explained to us yet. But he just doesn't want to be Changliu sect leader. All 4 are miserable in their own way. Don't forget, they're immortals so they have an eternity to be miserable. And our Wugou it seems is unchanged. So does it mean back when they got together as friends, he already looked so serious, so creepy? Does he look like that kinda guy you have dinner with? Miserable people. And Tanfan is nearby by the way. So we will get to see how drunkenly miserable Tan Fan is. Anyway Wugou kinda hit the nail when he said to BZH;
"Have you noticed I have yet to congratulate you on your promotion? That is because I know that is not a promotion you seek"
Something like that. And news travel fast because Wugou also knows BZH has a disciple. And BZH almost smiled as he talked about HQG who he highly praised and stony faced Wugou seems to notice a subtle change in BZH's demeanour.
Wait! Not in love yet! Not yet! Just affectionate, that's all. Come on! HQG is cute! How can you not like her right? Just like an elder liking a junior. No love, not yet.
Anyway before I move on, the scene where two old friends who haven't met for a long time met again for chit chat and a game of chess is rather interesting because...
Wugou looks absolutely gorgeous. Everything is perfect.
And this is also a scene where there are extreme closeups between these two men and BZH aka Wallace Huo has flawless perfect skin. I bet in HDTV this scene will be perfection.
Seriously though, what a bunch of miserable immortals we have here.
And now back to the case of a serial killer killing sect leaders. That's the start of this episode where Tangbao visits her mom and tagged along with shifu and HQG to visit Xiaobai Sect which is located in the middle of a desert. Correct. Desert. And their door is so hidden, you have to wait for a tornado before it appears. A sect so secretive, you need to know how to get in to get in. Also a man hating sect. It is basically a women only sect where men who dared to lay eyes on any of the disciples will get their eyes blinded. Yes, that sort of sect. But BZH is given free ticket to enter, however BZH refuses, because he respects their law (not like they could blind him and seriously if he enters, all women will forsake their chastity vows and run off with him) so it is best he doesn't enter. In his place he sends HQG (and Tangbao) to investigate to which HQG wonders can she do it, shifu says time for her to rely on herself and this is sorta like a test and HQG asks if she needs his help, he says and let me type this well..If you need to reach me, send me a pigeon
Maybe not a pigeon but a bird that sends mails. Yeap. 2 highly skilled magical people who could use a variety ways to communicate with one another, like mirror communication, water communication, ESP, whatever still uses "pigeon" mail. I sorta choked on my bird nest for awhile.
And so she goes, and the more she investigates, the more convulated. For one, do you remember Fei Yan's body? Nope? Here you got a closer look at the sect leader Yan Ping Shan's body or rather her skin. I kid you not! Even got flies. You will find out Xiao Bai sect must be one smelly place. Anyway how she became like this? No one knows. It is a big big mystery because the last the eldest disciple, Wei Xi saw her shifu, she was very much alive and was about to enjoy her dinner. Xiaogu's question is if this sect's location is so hidden, so mysterious, this must be an inside job. My question is, how come shifu can eat such a big bowl of rice??
Anyway HQG stumbled upon 2 interesting facts. One there are TWO serial killers in this series alone.
One is the mysterious sect leader killer. HQG, be careful!! Two, our sect leader Yan kills men or rather the men her disciples romances and their bodies are in the bunker or basement or whatever you call it and it smells. One of the lover belongs to our Weixi and Weixi was suspected but HQG believed Weixi wasn't the one since she only found out her shifu killed so many men. One other disciple is also missing so that may be relevant to the mystery deaths.
And out of nowhere Dongfang knocks on HQG's door to inform her in haste that 4 other sect leaders were killed the same way. Or was it 3? Anyway before they died, they all had a sudden surge of inner power that increased their level of cultivation aka inner power aka kung fu and they all became sect leader, including our Sect leader Yan and the missing disciple. And then Dongfang left. And no one wondered how come Dongfang could enter into the most hidden sect in the realm undetected and he knew how to find her. Not one. Anyway HQG found a small torn paper with some weird wordings and she deduced that was the forbidden manuscript for super fast supercharge cultivation power and she immediately sent for her shifu who arrived to beautify the dreary place. He was like an oasis in the middle of the dreary desert. Anyway, he didn't enter, he in fact said he knew someone could help to identify the manual and it will be Tan Fan and he wanted to bring HQG to meet this friend and HQG felt like she hit the jackpot because Shifu has friends?? and Shifu wants to introduce her to his friends?? sorta expression. Anyway Weixi tells HQG that her disciple sister, Mei Er, the missing one has a good friend who is a maid at Lian Chang and her name is Yun Ya. BZH looks rather uneasy about this fact.
And off they went.
Meanwhile the world's worst kept secret is revealed. No eyebrow lady greets Dongfang as Pavilion Leader or whatever. You know him as that masked guy. I know him as the guy who will hurt HQG and shifu the most, just because as a kid he couldn't get over how cold BZH was and what BZH said and so he swore to himself;
"BZH!! I refuse to believe you will never take a wrong step in your life! I will make you suffer for eternityyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy and wish you were deadddddddddd !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
And there ends this episode.
Frankly I find this episode so silly in parts and interesting in other. I felt Wugou and BZH in closeup were such arresting sights. Also HQG's declaration that she won't fail her shifu and unravel the mystery was rather cute. Tangbao is there to just you know, not make HQG talk to herself a lot. But other things were just silly, including the flies and the awful smell and most important of all, if you knew being an immortal is so miserable, why not just live out your life in full and just die a happy man?