Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

@AH,

XY was highly likely to outlive Jing. 

Check the 9 tailed fox when he lost 1 tail. 

although XY had low spiritual power, her blood is full of spiritual energy which was vital for life. Thus her life span may not be reduced as significantly as Jing. 

I will elaborate this lifespans subject in 12h (it 1am here) :))

 AH :

TSH cut seven of TSJ's nine tails off in chapter 42. As Hu Ya notes in that chapter, losing those tails would have significantly affected TSJ's spiritual power.

 AH :

Note that by the end of the novel, XY's spiritual powers have been very low for approximately 300 years (160 years of wandering after escaping from the eight-tailed fox, 20 years in QS town, and the events of the novel, which span approximately 120 years) and she doesn't seem like she's anywhere close to being near the end of her life.

So despite losing most of their spiritual power, I don't think XY or TSJ would only have 100 years left to live at the end of the novel. I expect that they will still live for several centuries, maybe even millennia, but they won't live as long as they could have if they had kept the very high spiritual powers that they were each born with (which theoretically would have been closer to the Yellow Emperor's lifespan of 6,000+ years).

I also don't think that TSJ's reduced powers and lifespan will necessarily mean that XY will outlive him.

There's differences between XY and Jing's spiritual powers.  Jing's lost his with his tails, and he didn't appear to be all that powerful before that.  XY still has all hers, but she can't access them, they've been transferred to her blood -- plus she was pretty powerful from the start.  The Royal Mother said XY could recover access to her spirit powers, if she spent time on Jade Mountain and worked with her, but XY refused to do so.  That's why XY will outlive Jing, and isn't facing her death.

I'm not sure where I read that Jing's lifespan was down to a century or so, but I'll see if I can find it.

 H19279:

Check the 9 tailed fox when he lost 1 tail.

although XY had low spiritual power, her blood is full of spiritual energy which was vital for life. Thus her life span may not be reduced as significantly as Jing.

I will elaborate this lifespans subject in 12h (it 1am here) :))

Ah, maybe that's where I read it, the 9 tailed fox.  Will check it out.

I feel another conversation about spiritual power vs energy coming on. :)  But yes, XY still had hers, in her blood and could have reversed the process that made her appear to be low in spirit power and could have regained her access to use that spirit power.

Get some sleep!  Or your spirit power will decline. :)

 H19279:

@AH,

XY was highly likely to outlive Jing.

I think XY is more likely to outlive TSJ than not (as she did in my fic), but is not guaranteed to do so. 

 H19279:

Check the 9 tailed fox when he lost 1 tail.

I quoted that part of the novel in my comment. Is there a different part that refers to his lifespan?

 H19279:

although XY had low spiritual power, her blood is full of spiritual energy which was vital for life. Thus her life span may not be reduced as significantly as Jing.

There are a lot of factors to consider here.

• TSJ is a little bit older than XY.
• TSJ was a deity born with high spiritual powers. He was also a descendant of the original nine-tailed fox, and nine-tailed foxes could live for 10,000+ years. His mother died young from illness and his father died young, but with no reason specified. His grandmother lived a very long life (although the length of her life and the energy she had in her last few years may have been affected by her use of a poisonous bug). His expected lifespan at birth should have been very long, unless he inherited an illness from his parents. 
• XY was a deity born with high spiritual powers. Her grandfather, who is still alive at the end of the novel, lived for well over 6,000 years. Although her grandmother died earlier than she should have due to illness exacerbated by a broken heart, she still also lived for over 6,000 years. Although Ah Heng "died" relatively young in battle, my recollection is that she lived to be at least 1,000. So XY's expected lifespan at birth would have been very long. 
• XY's body and blood were altered during the 70 years she spent on Jade Mountain, where she consumed many invaluable treasures (e.g., lots of bone essence and Jade Mountain peaches).
• XY's spiritual powers were significantly reduced / became very low ~300 years before the end of the novel, when the eight-tailed fox sucked out her powers and transferred them to her blood. But he never had the chance to eat her, so her powers remained in her blood.
• After XY was assassinated in chapter 21, XL used his essential blood to heal her and used one of his extra lives and blood magic to extend her life in chapter 22. This didn't change the level of XY's spiritual power, but it did alter her abilities and may have altered her expected lifespan. 
• After XY tried to kill herself in chapter 47, XL used his essential blood to heal her and used blood magic (on the clam shell) to extend her life in chapter 48. It's not clear if he used an extra life to save her this time, although he definitely used an extra life to break the bug connection between them in this chapter.  
• After their breakup, TSJ's health declined to the point where his life was in danger. In chapter 33, XY started treating TSJ's illness and helped him return to good health. 
• In chapter 33, XY created a special medicinal pill for TSJ that he could use in an emergency to save his life. That pill included a significant amount of her blood. ("Knowing that Hou and Yi Yang were planning to kill Jing, Xiao Yao wanted to make medicines for him to carry that could save his life in an emergency. But such medicines were very rare and hard to make. Luckily her study of the Sheng Nong Herb Manual all these years plus the holy waters in Gao Xing along with the heavenly mulberry trees, she had on hand all the rarest of ingredients to make it. Xiao Yao thought and used all the ingredients and added her own blood and after toiling away for a hundred days, she finally produced one pill. Xiao Yao fell deathly ill because she used her blood to make the pill, leaving her so weak she couldn’t even get out of bed.") In chapter 49, TSJ confirmed that he consumed that pill before his battle with TSH in chapter 42.
• In chapter 42, 7 of TSJ's 9 tails were cut off (significantly reducing his powers) ~7 years before the end of the novel. Two of his tails remained, so his powers were not eliminated entirely, as we see in chapter 50. 
• In chapter 46 (six years after TSJ's disappearance / "death"), XL used a huge amount of XY's blood to create a pill, which he gave to a merman with instructions. Sometime between chapter 46 and chapter 49, TSJ was revived by a mercouple in time to allow him to return and stop XY from becoming the Royal Mother. So TSJ was kept alive somehow between chapter 42 and chapter 46 (the pill that XY created for him in chapter 33 surely played a role, but XL might also have needed to use life-extending blood magic and/or one of his extra lives too), and then TSJ was revived by the pill that XL created in chapter 46 from XY's blood. 

Also in the drama (but not in the novel), XY directly feeds her blood to TSJ on three occasions:

• When she first brings TSJ to her clinic, WXL uses a bit of her blood to save YSQ's life, which was endangered by the injuries he received during TSH's torture.
• After TSJ and WXL are captured by CX and being transported by cart to the dragon bone prison, WXL feeds a small amount of her blood to TSJ.
• When XY is assassinated, XL spends 37 years healing her before waking her up and sending her back to save TSJ, who is in a coma. In addition to medicine (which was all she used in the novel), XY also uses her blood to help save TSJ's life and wake him up from his coma.

 H19279:

I will elaborate this lifespans subject in 12h (it 1am here) :))

I hope you have a good sleep in the meantime! 

 fancy:

She might, especially now that they are on their way to find the mermaid couple. 

I don't understand! Explain better why she could Discover?

 fancy:

She might, especially now that they are on their way to find the mermaid couple. 

 Kokuto:

I'm not sure what this is in reference to.  Can you link us up to the post Fancy made?

I'm new on this but fancy said that XY could know about the message inside the Doll because jing and her Will find the mermaid couple (page 1 of the discussion). And i dont understand How could she finds out about the message XL left for her!

 Feyre:

Aug 3, 2023 02:26 pm
 Mina:
He asked furball to deliver the doll to Ah Bie to give to XY as a wedding gift. He didn’t want her to know it was from him. Furball protested initially but delivered to A Bie.

Ohh then XY never really knew who it was from. And from that, I don't think XY will ever know the letter that was hidden inside of it

 fancy:

Aug 3, 2023 02:47 pm
 Feyre:
Ohh then XY never really knew who it was from. And from that, I don't think XY will ever know the letter that was hidden inside of it

She might, especially now that they are on their way to find the mermaid couple.

 AnneGrace:

14 minutes ago
 fancy:
She might, especially now that they are on their way to find the mermaid couple.

I don't understand! Explain better why she could Discover?

 AnneGrace:

4 minutes ago
 Kokuto:
I'm not sure what this is in reference to.  Can you link us up to the post Fancy made?

I'm new on this but fancy said that XY could know about the message inside the Doll because jing and her Will find the mermaid couple (page 1 of the discussion). And i dont understand How could she finds out about the message XL left for her!

@AnneGrace  I think fancy was referring to the fact that XY and TSJ intended to find the mercouple that were present when TSJ woke up (the ones he thought were responsible for saving him) in the future. When XY and TSJ left Dahuang to head to the Ocean at the end of the novel, they could have started looking for the mercouple then.

If XY and TSJ managed to find the mercouple and actually managed to learn from them that XL was responsible for saving TSJ (IMO, very unlikely), then perhaps XY might also figure out that the big-bellied laughing doll was actually from XL (again, IMO, very unlikely) and they might figure out how to open the big-bellied laughing doll to reveal the ice crystal ball that was hidden inside, which included the extra figure that XL added of a man smiling at the mermaid and holding her outstretched hand (IMO, representing TSJ) and the message that was carved into it, which was clearly from XL (again, IMO, very, very unlikely). 

-----

Chapter 46:

Xiao Yao forced a devastated smile and gritted her teeth before taking her bow to slice open her other wrist so the blood could flow faster. Both her hands were spilling blood into the urn and Xiao Yao had no strength to open her eyes anymore so all she could hear was the sound of blood flowing.

...

Xiang Liu didn’t move or say a word, only staring at the urn with the same plastered smile on his face. He could see clearly the glistening blood inside, beautiful in its power. He stretched his palms forward and conjured up power, a blue green light glowed around him like stars and the urn gradually got smaller and smaller until it became a blood red jewel the size of a pigeon’s egg. Xiang Liu held it in his hand, and turning the blood into a jewel appeared to have sapped Xiang Liu of his power and his face was pale and his hands shook. He closed his eyes and pursed his lips, and after some time he was able to make a call that only the water tribes could hear.

After some time, a ripple appeared on the water’s surface and a merman rode the waves up to Xiang Liu. He stopped before Xiang Liu and bowed respectfully.

Xiang Liu handed the red blood jewel to the merman who carefully received it and placed it into a blue shell that was custom made by the Jin Tian family for this jewel. Xiang Liu spoke to the merman in the mer language, and the merman listened to Xiang Liu’s instructions before nodding and bowing to Xiang Liu. He turned and rode the waves towards the direction of the ocean.

Xiang Liu watched the merman until he disappeared from view.

-----

Chapter 49:

Xiao Yao asked, “Where have you been all these years?”

Jing explained, “Hou forced me to duel and I secretly ate the life preserving pill you gave me beforehand. I wanted to jump into the water to escape and Hou kicking me in the water helped my plan along. But his kick was much stronger than expected and I fainted in the water. When I woke up it was five days ago at dawn on a deserted island in the East Sea. A mercouple saved me but I couldn’t communicate in their language. We communicated in gestures and I figured out that they found me unconscious in the ocean and didn’t know who I was or how to wake me. They placed me on the deserted island and fed me herbs from time to time. Luckily there are tons of strange treasures in the ocean and they accidentally chanced upon the right sea herbs to wake me up. I rushed back worried about you and only then did I learn seven years had passed. The Yellow Emperor told me you were not on Sheng Nong Mountain and told me to rush to Jade Mountain.”

Xiao Yao wiped her tears. “I want to thank the mercouple that saved you.”

Jing sighed, “Merpeople live in the vast ocean without a set residence. When I left and asked how I could find them again, they just pointed to the ocean so I don’t even know how to find them again.”

Xiao Yao said, “We can look for them in the future and take our time, but now we need to go beg for forgiveness from the Royal Mother.”

-----

Chapter 50:

Inside the peach blossom forest, Sir Bi asked, “Things happened so quickly to ask what happened, but who saved you, Jing, and why so long before coming back?”

Jing explained about the mercouple in the East Sea and Sir Bi’s mind roiled after hearing it. The Nine-headed demon is the supreme power in the ocean, totally able to command the merpeople to do his bidding. And finding merpeople who could not communicate in the human language, and who lived in the vast ocean, Xiang Liu was cruel and brilliant in saving Jing without ever leaving a way to be discovered.

Xiao Yao asked, “Ah Bi, what’s wrong? Why is your expression so strange?”

Sir Bi quickly covered up. “Nothing!”

-----

Chapter 51:

Xiao Yao wearily closed her eyes. “Jing, I want to leave!”

“Where shall we go?”

“To the ocean! The millions of miles of ocean and unending horizon. Xiang Liu said there were endless uninhabited and uncharted islands, perhaps we can find a beautiful island to call home.”

“Sure!”

 plor20:

Again, in my language, tus hlub ( 情人) are not words to be used for "friends" or "confident." My conclusion is similar to yours mentioned a few posts ago.

Thank you @plor20. There's really no ambiguity. It's lovers - two people in a romantic relationship. 

I was curious, so I checked the scene in the drama where XL talked to the old man about the Lovers Bugs to see the English translation. This was on Tencent channel on Youtube.  Unsurprisingly, the translation was not good. It was termed Couple Bugs and the Poisonous Love Bugs (in lieu of Heartbreak Bugs). Although there was mentioned that young girls typically raised it for their lover. Although, this may be an issue with the actual dialogue rather than translation because it was the same over at Viki

 AnneGrace:

I see now... But i guess she'll find the mercouple! In my heart she won't be able to stay or love jing. When we really Lost Someone forever we realize through pain our real feelings!

Welcome to the thread :-)!

There's truth to your statement. There's nothing like losing something forever to realize how important it was. Xiao Yao, though, is very good at pretending, avoiding and lying to herself. So who knows, maybe she'll continue to play dumb and live out her life with Jing.