LissaJones

Get me a boat and some wine, lol

Hmm.
I am curious if anyone else is aware that the ingredients need to be melded together with cultivation. They make no mention of this when the book is decoded, though that first guy JBZ got revenge on clearly knew since it piqued JBZ's interest. Whether MQB passed that tidbit onto bad emperor guy... I dunno that he would. Seemed like he would have wanted to keep that as an ace. SL/CY never mentions it either.
Shifu might know given who he likely is, but I expect he's keeping that close as well.

Given that she doesn't need it though, maybe she plans to run with it once she gets it, or realises that JBZ will be lured in anyway and that's how she gets it to him? Or it's a scheme beforehand and they're playing SL in reverse?

✋Can I join? Do we have jackets and a meeting place?

I am interested if he will be the actual big bad, or if it will be his dad, or just a bad-guy pile-up.

👏👏 Approved 👏👏

That's my thinking too. If he'd been raised there, he would have had the same hard time as SL/CY did without veins, so it's not like finding his family is going to really make him happy. Mother gave him up for power, a half-brother who would have made his life hell, and a dad who apparently noticed absolutely NOTHING. [side-eying the hell out of this cameo emperor btw at this point]

On top of this, the Empress/his real mum abused his replacement, MY, her whole life into the perfect prince, a treatment JBZ would have gotten too if he'd had a vein. Not to mention that he will likely learn what the Empress did to the person he now loves most. He isn't going to like mummy one bit, and he already doesn't like Ming Xin.

If anything does a number on him, and will make him madder, is that he and MY have been connected by fate since literal birth, and they both were going to end up suffering regardless of which position they were in. JBZ was always going to be abused in some way. MY was always going to have nobody, since if she'd stayed with her birth parents/aunt, her clan would have gotten wiped out around her, and she'd be on the run from SL/CY's father and Mu Qibai. This may get both of them to mope a bit, and be distant, but it also seems like they'd suck it up given the realisation that fate was never going to be nice and yet they have each other.

MY and JBZ, guys please, just get the same room already, for everyone's sanity, including ours but especially Buxiu's. Also, perhaps, get some curiosity for the other mysteries you got handed the other day.

SL/CY... Prince Friendzone, there is a perfectly... as-crazy-as-you fox lady there who'll love you as psychotically as you like MY. Take the hint. I will however give you half a point for being smart enough to destroy that book before your dad got it. [Though the fact the fox lady got it so easily seems... deflating for the story a bit at this point].

Ming Xian has a stupid face that I wish to punch, repeatedly, that smug [insert Australian local term for 'friend' here that the rest of the world thinks is extremely rude]. I hope someone in the show fulfills this wish of mine. Oh, I don't think that mirror came from Ming Xin though; too easy, whatever the trailer suggests.

27, you're so cute, even when not currently in any form. And helpful. Have some dry fish, you perfect kitty for helping the plot along before anyone even needed it thanks to your kleptomania (which I expect of magpies rather than cats, but hey). Come back quick.

Tianji, you make a good empress. Also, good girl-buddy. I take back my thoughts.

**Extra spoilery based on bits of trailer vids**
I wonder how she'll take it when she loses Ji Bozai to Yaoguang Mountain, but gains Ming Yi instead. A female veteran who has won the tourney 7 times and the war god she once wanted to beat so badly. Given the feminism Ming Yi's bolstered in her, it might go rather well.

That said, maybe it's a conspiracy they all hatch for the tourney? They all want to bring down the poison conspirators, maybe they'll use the eventual switch to flush it all out into the public?

Wow... that's certainly a wake up call! 🤣🤣🤣

It's highly likely that SL/CY tells Ming Xin prior to the ceremony since they're teaming up. There isn't another way that it could come out unless the Empress is in on it and she told him. If that's the case then Empress is apparently playing 4D chess.

Dear lord I want Ming Xin to be smacked down a peg already; he barely comes on screen and yet I hate his smug, stupid, grinning face. He clearly isn't bright and thinks so highly of himself; so gods please let MY/MX actually beat his arse at some point soon, I don't want her to be saved from this smug (insert friendly Australian term here that every thinks is rude).

^^THIS^^
😅🤣😂

I think JBZ might be a bit sus on shifu there honestly, but SL/CY is his bigger issue at this point.

MX needs to wonder how much shifu knows about widdle dragon girl, honestly. I would.

Then again, in this marrage:
JBZ: *has many trust issues and multiple glaring clues that wife is in fact MX* "Eh, it's fine, it adds up. Well, it doesn't but damn if she isn’t cute, clever and helpful. I'm in love".
MX: *gets abused by mother, eventually gets told really specific info that should raise questions about her and hubby* "Eh, this is normal. Everyone has abusive parents. Well, that specific info wasn't sus at all. Well, it was, but all the curiosity I have is being relegated to my oddly cute husband over here..."

Ok, definitely teared up when Buxiu learned what happened to his buddy (boyfriend).

Oh come on, I wanted SL/CY to kill off his dad before he went completely nuts in his obsession. I get that a shred or kindness does wonders to a hugely abused person, but direct the psycho to the person responsible.

Meanwhile, dad has the whole rule the world plot with some array that sounds a bit... antithetical to his desire. Seriously, that array sounded like a doomsday weapon, not a takeover manual.

Definitely loved JBZ continuing to poke MX relentlessly because he seems to find it utterly attractive that his wife not only could kick his arse, but wanted to murder him at one point. That's true love 😍.

(There's something distinctly Potter-McGonagall about the pancake scene. MX's dealing with something serious in her mind, like being stuck in the barrier, and JBZ comes out of left field with "Have a pancake." Reminded me of the OoTP where McGonagall randomly tells an overthinking Harry to have a biscuit.)

I guess they assume they're protecting her still. They're spirits, they can't know everything going on outside and perhaps the necessity of that info at this point. They also clearly couldn't tell she'd been healed already, so they didn't really need to give her the recipe at all beyond them believing maybe it should get out due to the Heavenly Grief everywhere.

What gets me is that they say this to MY, and MY is as obtuse as JBZ about the obvious significance of this glaring clue. (At least they're a match in overlooking the obvious, so well done there writers, lol)

To be fair, he's realised he's accidentally stumbled on the one person in the world who can legitimately challenge him mentally AND physically, and given his musings about the tournament, quite possibly actually beat him (mentally she has actually already beaten him). She also legitimately loves under under the lies and has given up a lot, even lied a lot, just for him. It's all likely a big turn on (and maybe slight kink).

And it's so easy to do it too, despite the emotional agony. Once you have the mindset ingrained, it's default. Protection for others and yourself becomes interwined too innately to untangle, no matter the damage.

For MY it's worse since her entire life has been moulded completely around her effectively being a useful protector to her people, and if she did that, she was (mostly) safe from mummy's wrath and discovery of her actual sex.

Definitely. It can happen in any show, or decent one anyoway. Fact of the matter is, people are inherently annoying, it's just we all have our tolerance for certain kinds for certain reasons. MY bugs me for being a mirror, and cliche repetition, but I still like her. JBZ bugs me for not recognising hypocrisy in himself and being less curious than he ought to be in his situation. Still like him though.

I really just want to savour the trailer for 26, because...
The big bad dragon guardian of the Bo clan that's been keeping the evil emperor (SL's dad) and his minions away is a cute widdle girlie! 😅🤣😂
On a serious note, wonder how this new info will hit the couple, both separately and together.

Take it from someone who has been in a similar mentality as MY/MX, it sucks. Particularly if you see that everyone around you is also suffering in some way, so you won't burden them more with your own sh*t, just keep it locked up so you can deal with theirs. It's not healthy, honestly, but even with therapy, it doesn't really leave. You just learn more honesty, but on many occasions you still default to "protect everyone" mode because facing your own problems is harder.

She's got a very real life issue. It's frustrating, and sure it's being strung out narratively for drama, but there isn't a quick fix, and if you add the stress of dying to it, I really get her just going "screw it, nobody will ever hate me more than I hate myself, so, in for a penny..."

That's what I thought. To divorce you have to remove or break it or something. But I feel like it'd be harder for them since JBZ forced her name onto the rock in the first place

Does JBZ actually sever the bond or just block it? I forget what they said about the whole rock marriage thing. It feels like that's something he may subconsciously want to keep, and would help keep track of her. He shows up in town afterall when SL is carrying her away but there's no reason he'd know she's there unless the connection still exists in some way. He also found her pretty fast in the forest.

Which begs the question, if BY had JBZ in her custody as an infant, did she put him in the abyss out of revenge at MX's treatment by the empress? Is that why she asked JBZ if he'd regret being her student?