Divine Forge

This episode was interesting. Leader Ma wants to see how the forge will work on people with strong Qi. He corners Zhuge Qing into helping a guy trapped in his phantasmagoria. He can’t really say no because the mom is begging at his feet and it is an awful position to be in. He agrees knowing that it will open up two places. His and the guy he really doesn’t know. This portion of the story shows a weak man fulfilling his fantasy of being a big fish in a little pond. He refuses to leave and Qing exits the furnace telling the mom he is quite content where he is. She of course finds this unacceptable and when Leader Ma has no way to address the problem, he agrees to go back in. Qing finally gets the guy to accept his far more humble reality and they both exit. However, Qing has his own moral battle to conquer - his desire for learning the Divine forge and sacrificing his sanity, or to accept that Wang Ye has mastered a skill he covets with far less training. He has the blade master from Biyou watch over him and here is where I wish it would have been WangYe. WangYe had a much better understanding of the problem but it seems his victory has left a dark spot in Qing’s heart about the matter so that is maybe why he wasn’t around for this part. Qing did not want his friend to know that he was jealous. The forge has been haulted for now because it was not equipped to handle someone with truly strong Qi. I am glad Qing did not choose the dark side, even in staying. This is something he has needed to deal with and it has hopefully equipped him with the strength to realize that what is in his best interest is not learning the Divine forge. Leader Ma has tipped his hand twice that he is not interested in what is best for the people going in. He has no understanding of what he is doing but is like the mad scientist that wants to see what will happen no matter the chaos. What I am not sure about if this is his chosen path or is his sister manipulating him like he does his followers. Chen Duo is definitely becoming more interesting. Was she the product of her environment, or was she the source of a new power that let loose on its own unguided and destructive? Even Meng has no idea because he just found her there.

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Mixed Feelings For This Episode

On the one hand, I loved that they gave significance to the "White Dragon Horse" parable by cutting to Ma Xianhong intermittently as Zhuge Qing told the story. For context, the Ma in MXH means horse. While MXH doesn't have his luscious mane of hair in this adaptation, it is still clear that the Zhao Nian debacle was a preface to the fact that what he's trying to do is very dangerous. ----On the other hand, they made Zhuge Qing fight his heart demon WITHOUT THE INFAMOUS "PERSON A" SCENE. It lowkey broke my heart LOL It makes sense why people don't like this Zhuge Qing or they think it's too OOC. THE DRAMA NEVER EXPLAINED HIS ACTIONS GRRRRRRRR

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