Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

Chapter 50: Married and married, farewell to Jing Ye Jing, meets Bai Di Yao, takes Ruo Muhua, bids farewell to relatives, Yao Jing gets married, asks Xuan to let Xiang Liu go

1. From Su Wuliu’s Farewell Wife: Life is a time to come back, death is a longing for love. Translation: You and I have become husband and wife, loving each other without any doubt. The joy is only tonight, and the two lovers should take advantage of this beautiful moment. The expedition members were always thinking about the trip. They got up to see how late at night it would be. None of the stars in the sky can be seen, and we are gone forever. Ordered to go to the battlefield, the two did not know when they would meet again. I clasped my hands and sighed loudly, and cried more when parting. Try to cherish your youth and don’t forget the happy times. If I am lucky enough to be alive, I will definitely come back to you. If unfortunately I die, I will miss you forever.

2. The last four sentences describe the newlyweds’ solemn words of advice to each other when they say goodbye. Among them, the two sentences "work hard" are the wife's instructions to her husband. She wants her husband to cherish her youth and take care of her health while on the road, and at the same time keep in mind the love and joy between husband and wife, which reflects a wife's care and worry; The two sentences "Dang" are the husband's answer to his wife: "If I survive, I will grow old with you. If I die on the battlefield, I will always miss you." It shows the husband's loyalty to love.

3. Su Wu was persuaded to surrender by the Huns and would rather die than surrender. When he finally returned, his wife had married someone else.

@windiaaa

Thank you for the the list of poems, I kept searching for them on google, but I couldn't find them all. If I'll ever re-read the book, it's going to be interesting to link each chapter to its poem. 

After staying away from this thread for a couple of days because although your discussion was very interesting, it also made me dislike drama Xiao Yao (and it in return makes it hard for me to watch S2 later if I can‘t at least like or can sympathize with the FL), I would like to offer my opinion as well on who’s power it is XY felt after the  Mu‘s assasination. On this point I tend to agree with @H19279 and @HeadInTheCloud, even if @AH and @Liddi also gave very reasonable and convincing contra arguments. 

In the drama, no mention of XY‘s inner thought when she was at the death door. So there is no point of contention about whose power XY felt in the drama, but we can still analyze whose contribution it is in the drama which made real difference in XY survival:

1. Jing found XY first and tried to heal her (gave his power) but XY condition for all appearance looked unchanged, so much so that Jing thought she was dead and tried to suicide with her. So it looked like his power didn‘t have any effect on XY state (ineffective). And then I interpreted his action of giving her his power again as the inferno was raging was his attempt of trying to protect and preserve her dead body from being burned (credit to TSJ in saving her from burned to ashes).  In all fairness it can also be argued that this action helped keeping her body alive, similar to how Xiao2 and other CX guards gave their spiritual power to XY later.

2. after CX guards saved XY and Jing (CX was unconcious), they successfully pried TSJ from XY and she laid on the jade bed without ANY life support whatsoever as the guards already convinced that she was dead (stopped breathing). It‘s not clear in the drama which power the jade bed has, if it only preserves the dead body (doesn‘t disintegrate further or has some healing property), I believe not, because CX minion thought she was dead already so no point trying to save dead people right? And CX only ordered his men to transfer spiritual power to XY after he noticed the PLB flying out of XY‘s heart/body.

3. simultaneously XL felt that PLB was leaving XY because his PLB also flying away from his chest and he did some spell to force his PLB back into his body thus PLB on XY’s side also went back in to her chest. CX mistakenly believed the transfer of spiritual power of his guards was the thing that helped XY (he noticed that her hand was becoming warmer), but the editing of this scene and XL’s scene before made me believe that ultimately X‘s action was the one that saved XY. The flying PLB is symbol of life leaving XY body and XL forced it back with his power channeled through their connected PLB. And we all now what XL did later to heal XY

So my conclusion from drama:

1. Jing saved XL body from fire and maybe helped preserved her body for a while until CX guards also transfer their spiritual power to her

2. CX (his guards) helped preserved XY body until XL arrived

3. XL saved XY life by forcefully pushing his PLB back into his body (this point is important for my argument later) and healed her after 37 years in the clam shell

Now to the novel

When I read this assasination part for the first time, my first thought on whose power flowed into XY body was actually that it‘s from  XL. I don’t know why I spontaneously thought that, maybe because like others pointed out before me, XY felt the emotion behind the spiritual power so automatically I assumed that this is XL power because PLB connection she could feel XL emotion when he couldn’t suppress his. Imagine my pikachu shock face when I read in this forum different opinion on whose power it was and because it‘s coming from certified and knowledgable novel readers, at first I bowed to their supreme knowledge even if it‘s a bitter pill for me to swallow as I don‘t have any valid counter argument at that point other than my gut feeling when I read this part. 

Disclaimer: I’m using names from drama, because I’m more familiar with them. I may also for the sake of a complete argument for my opinion repeat things that @H19279 or @HeadInTheCloud already pointed out and I agree with. I don’t make any distinction between spiritual power or energy discussed before because I think my argument stands fine without it. 

@Liddi‘s quote

In my opinion, this is the timeline:

1. After her attack, Xiang Liu's heart kept her conscious and guided her weak heartbeat with his strong one. Agree!

2. At the time she lost all strength to sustain her heartbeat, Jing found her and poured his spiritual power into her - this is the desolate power she felt, which gave her renewed strength and enabled her heart to continue beating.

3. As Jing continued to transfer a steady stream of power into her even while the flames surrounded them, Xiang Liu was able to guide her to lock herself up and reverse the process until she was like a seed hidden in the soil, in darkness.

Quote from @AH :
She really had no strength left, so that even the weak sole flame that was keeping her heart beating was too much to sustain. Even with another heart guiding her heart, still the heartbeat grew weaker.

Suddenly power coursed through her, unending streams of power that allowed the weak heartbeat to continue beating.

She couldn’t hear it, couldn’t see it, couldn’t even feel it, but she felt sad because the spiritual power was so sad and devastated. Even the power was crying and Xiao Yao couldn’t even imagine how heartbroken the owner of the spiritual power was.

Xiao Yao wanted to see who was so sad but didn’t have the strength. She could only follow the guidance of the other heart and slowly locked herself up. Just like a flower blooming, the reverse process was to return to being a bud, into a seed, back into the soil, laying in the Winter to wait for the Spring to arrive.

Xiao Yao couldn’t hear, couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, but she still felt unbearable.

My argument against point 2&3:

• There is no clear timeline to gauge from XY pov of her near death experience actually, only what she experienced/observed in chronological order. The novel didn’t say exactly how long XY heart was beating weakly until it almost gave up. So it’s actually also possible that XY weakened heart almost gave up before Jing found her, maybe even only moments after the last death blow as her wounds were so severe and although XL still thousand miles away, because  he felt that her heartbeat almost stopped (he‘s the only one with actual direct connection to her heart and so can know exactly when her heart almost stopped beating), he send her his spiritual power through their connecting PLB. It stays a mystery what PLB can and can‘t do (the long essays and MDL many pages of discussion in this thread is proof of that and how PLB actually works can be interpreted differently). And if we consider the whole point of PLB is actually to saved the life of a loved one like the Vodoo King said, then I don‘t see why it‘s not possible to send spiritual power through PLB‘s connection as well in addition to one strong heart keep the other‘s weaker or mortally wounded heart beating. Imho it‘s actually more probable that XL is the one who saved her timely (know the exact timing to send her power to help keep her heart beating because his heart connected directly with her heart (their hearts beat at the same pace) instead of TSJ got very lucky in finding XY  just as her heart stop beating  (in fairness this is based entirely of subjective pov to judge what is more probable, while drama/novel are known to employ this trope of hero saves heroine at the nick of time though, just because he‘s the hero, but TH sure did divert some more cliche tropes in LFY). So by the time Jing found XY she‘s already in closed up state described by the end of the novel‘s quote above, because XL already electroshocked her heart with his surge of power before and guided her to go deep into vegetative state. That‘s why TSJ’s power transfer to XY didn‘t have any effect on her state at all (he tried kissing her and everything, but couldn’t detect any heartbeat or life left in XY and so assumed she’s truly dead, thus his despair and suicide attempt). Like the drama I interpret his power transfer did only succeed  in protecting XY from fire and helped sustain her body in vegetative state. The novel didn’t mentioned anything about what XL doing from the time he sense XY is in trouble until he arrived in Chenrong Mountain. I let my imagination run and say that it‘s probable that he also keep sending XY the stream of power during his whole journey through PLB.  I don‘t know if the novel mentioned this, but in the drama when XL received PLB he said that a bug expert can kill people from thousand of miles away using the bug (which if we follow the logic that the bug is planted beforehand in the target then the bug expert very possibly kills the target by sending his killing power through the bug and thus activate the bug to kill or something similar, so sending power through bugs is possible). 
• In addition like @H19279 mentioned, the description of this desolate ‚unending stream of power’ from the novel actually fit XL’s power better. TushanGrandma herself said as TSJ sense something amiss that the true Tushan bloodline can sense calamity but doesn’t know exactly what it is and this is the ability that sustain their family through dangerous times and made their clan powerful, even if the leader‘s (spiritual)  power is not the strongest. So from the beginning TSJ is never the strongest in term of spiritual power and he was even weakened after his ordeal with TSH. Even CX guards who all are powerful and trained deities need to take turn transferring power to XY, and I don‘t think Jing power is greater than each of them at this point. Moreover his power should not only revive XY almost gone heartbeat but also protect her from the magic fire at the same time and sustain her vegetative body. I don‘t think his power is strong enough to do all of this until they both found.
• the emotion XY felt from the power. Only PLB is known to connect people‘s emotion. This explanation makes more sense to me than XY suddenly can feel the emotion behind TSJ power. Afterwards XY is in deep vegetative state, everything shutting down to the point that she couldn’t feel, so it also make sense that in this deep vegetative state the PLB connection also shutting down to ‚sleep mode‚ to conserve power after it is used to keep her heart beating so that she can‘t feel XL emotion (I don‘t think XL is in the state of mind to conceal his emotion from XY at this point) and his heartbeat until XL transfer his heart blood to her (the warmth she felt after she felt almost crazy trapped in concious sleeping in darkness for a long time) and slowly awakened/restored the PLB connection as well (she can feel his heartbeat again).  
• How could XL‘s heart so perfectly timed, after the surge of power, guided her to locked herself, if he‘s not the one who send her the power to revive her heart because he knew how dangerous her condition was? XL could not know the extend/severity of XY’s wounds because (it‘s mentioned) due to his 9 heads he only feel a fraction of XY pain so the severity of XY health condition he could feel actually is only a fraction of the reality. The only accurate indication of XY condition for him was her heartbeat. Through their PLB‘s connection XL might feel her heart almost giving up but then beating again more steadily (if TFJ was the one who gave her the power) but in this case why did he then guide her to locked herself up? He might assume that someone saved XY so this person might continue to supply XY with the power she need to keep her heart beating, especially if like the novel said this power is ‚unending‚ until he arrived, so there‘s no need to guide her to locked herself up. The idea that he and TSJ could coordinated perfectly to save XY heartbeat without communication whatsoever also doesn‘t hold water for me (it can be author sloppines/plot hole but TH like you all said looks like a thoughtful author). But if XL‘ is the one who sent the power then it fits, because he then knew exactly the severity of XY heart‘s condition and could judge if his power may or may not be enough to sustain her heart to beat long  enough until he arrived, so he guided her to conserve every power she got by locking herself in, to buy more time.
  
  4. When Xiao Xiao and the guards took over in transferring spiritual energy to the water pallet, she was already in limbo. There is no more mention of her feeling the sadness of a desolate power still coursing through her. Agreed
  
  5. The physicians' description of a continuous stream of spiritual power being transferred to her has to do with the guards' efforts, which sustained the life signs of her physical body. Agreed
  
  6. These efforts would have continued until Xiang Liu finally arrived and took her to the seashell. During the journey to the seashell, he too would have continued to transfer power to her, keeping her physically alive until such time when he could begin to heal her. Agreed. XL power transfer may also here serve two purposes, to keep her heart beating through PLB ‚sleep mode‘ and conserving her body. I believe XL power is great enough to do both unlike Jing‘s (even Yu Jiang can not defeat heavily wounded XL in his last battle).  Because the novel said ‚unending power‘ I interpret it that this constant stream of power actually didn‘t stop even after she locked herself up, only she couldn‘t feel it anymore because PLB went to sleep mode and only allow steady power transfer to help keep her heart beating

So our difference in opinion I guess boils down to what we believe PLB is capable of doing. Does PLB can be used to send power through great distance? I think the drama supports this assumption, the novel I don‘t know. Maybe AH or liddi can confirm or disprove this. And my other argument is the timing of when the power came fit better to XL who has direct connection to her heart instead of TSJ who‘s coming blind to whatever calamity befall XY and only has luck (or cliche trope) to make him transfer power at the right time in addition to the already mentioned emotion connection and the power description that fit XL better.

I saw the scene in drama where XL pushed PLB back into his chest as the easter egg TH hides to explain whose desolate power it is that saved XY, because although some things are different or omitted completely in the drama but if TH, like she said, tried to keep the essence of her story and character in the drama the same with the novel, then the drama showed that it’s definitely XL’s action that saved XY heart from stopping to beat with PLB flying away from her chest as the visual imaginary for this. I rest my case your honor.

 H19279:

There should be distinguishtion between this two terms. The more I read examples using each term, the more I think 灵气 is a kind of spiritual material while 灵力 relates to power 

Exactly. 灵气 spiritual energy is the essence while 灵力 spiritual power is power that is derived/transformed from that energy. Spiritual energy can be used to heal, strengthen spiritual powers. Spiritual powers is the force which would work more on the physical side, which is why it was able to keep the heart beating, the internal organs functioning. 

Good catch on the process the Nine-Tailed fox used to force Xiao Yao's spiritual powers into her blood, essentially converting it back into spiritual energy which he could then ingest! I believe you hit the nail on the head there. 

The translation you shared is a little misleading in terms of the terminology used. I would have translated the text you cited a little differently, which should make the distinction clearer between the two:

相柳不言不动，一直含笑看着眼前的水鼎。鼎身透明，能清楚地看到里面的鲜血，灵气流溢，煞是好看。他双掌缓缓伸出，催动灵力，蓝绿色的光影急剧地闪烁变幻，犹如有无数流星在飞舞，水鼎渐渐收缩，最后凝聚成了一个鸽子蛋般大小的血红珠子，落在相柳的掌心。

Xiang Liu stayed silent and unmoving, staring at the water cauldron with a fixed smile. The cauldron was transparent, and the blood within was clearly visible, overflowing with spiritual energy, a breathtaking sight. He slowly stretched out his palms and called forth spiritual power. Blue green light flashed and transformed rapidly like countless meteors dancing, and the cauldron gradually shrunk until it condensed into a blood red bead the size of a pigeon's egg, falling into Xiang Liu's palm.

-- Vol 3 Ch13  (Chapter 46)

 liddi:

The translation you shared is a little misleading in terms of the terminology used. I would have translated the text you cited a little differently, which should make the distinction clearer between the two:

I know that the current English translation of LYF is mixing up these two words

 H19279:

Here are the quote for your point: A powerful bug master can summon a bug tens of thounsands of miles away (Chapter 7)

"Xiang Liu rolled his eyes at Xiao Liu “Someone like you dared to control a bug? A truly powerful voodoo master could summon a bug tens of thousands of miles away to kill someone. Do you think all bugs are like you, slow poke like ambling across mountains and ridges?”

I also interpret that XL send the power via the bug for lengthy amount of time (hours). The word "unending" is a hint for that. If that transfer lasted for tens of minutes, it would not sound fit for such expression. The amount of time since Jing saw XY until Xiao Xiao came is above half an hour (they could not stay in the inferno more than that; half an hour = 60 normal minutes)

Thank you for the novel quote. 

@Liddi used the word ‚steady‘ instead of ‚unending‘, but I do think both these words still convey similar thing, constant spiritual power transfer over a long period of time.  

 I guess this is again the case like PLB where each of us can ultimately chooses how to interpret this point because there are valid arguments but also enough doubts from both sides supported by text in the novel and a lot of blank space which each of us can fill ourselves to fit/explain our theories better. I don‘t know if I should bow to TH mastery in writing or hate her for being so opaque about lots of things. But hey what do I expect when the romance itself has so many different interpretation from XY love only TSJ to XY love only XL and everything in between (even it was a point of discussion if XY-CX was childhood sweetheart or not ‚sigh‘. I have no opinion on this or don‘t actually care, I only care about XL. Other character can go drown themselves or burn themselves to crisps with my blessing LOL)

 luv2bafangurl:

@Liddi used the word ‚steady‘ instead of ‚unending‘, but I do think both these words still convey similar thing, constant spiritual power transfer over a long period of time.

I'm going to pipe in here. According to my reading, the terms that were used to describe this spiritual power were both steady and unending. The more literal meaning of the 1st lot of words that corresponded to steady is probably unchanging. For instance, if you use fuel/power, it quantity will decrease. Here, the term used means that the quantity stays the same/stayed whole. The 2nd lot of words corresponded to un-ending.

Let me know what you think @liddi

For me, the description pointed to strong, powerful, sustained power that is more appropriately associated with Xiang Liu. Jing may get a surge of power in desperation, but to maintain it in an unchanging, unending state is not convincing to me. We are of course being very pedantic and splitting hair with our reading :-)

Will come back to read the responses in depth. Thanks, ladies for keeping this thread pumping :-)

And thanks to windiaaa041293 for continuing to contribute to the thread. I haven't had the chance to read through everything, yet. How are you going with my suggestion, by the way?