SPOILERS: Ep.25-31 Recap, Q&A, Novel Comparison

CP/MXL's birth

Two things were deposited into their mom‘s womb after she died. One was blood from the father of the arranged marriage.The other was the chaos pearl.

GQM was a product from the blood.MXL is from the chaos pearl.

 Neptune:

@Micha, thank you for taking the time to put it all in one place. It's really useful.

If anyone knows, please help...I've got a question re: CP/MXL's birth. I understood it as she was birthed as a twin with GQM, but they left her under the Xuanling Tree because they thought she was demonised/defective. And they assumed GQM was the CP. Is that correct?

No biggie! ♡

About MXL's birth, she manifested as light and escaped from the womb when NX was cut open to take GQM out. The aunt, master, and dad Gao were blinded by the light but they thought the light was a sign from the heavens that GQM became the CP. They didn't know another entity was there. That's why the aunt said they were mistaken. 

Later on MXL gained awareness of her environment and had human form. She was discovered by the steward who brought her to the Gao estate as a spirit slave - mistakenly identified as from the Spirit clan because of the "demonic" markings on her face. 

It was Sang Qi who named MXL after the Xuanling tree. On the night of his attack on the Gao estate, he saw Ling Ling(that was her token name there from her slave anklet numbered 0-0) and took her because he could sense NX's faint spirit on her. 

The one who was abandoned under a tree by a crossroads was Sang Qi so he named himself after it. 

 Neptune:

@Micha, Thanks🌸. & knowing a little little canto I kinda get their names too lol. So she didn't birth as a baby from GQM's mums body, but the rest happens after the light & elsewhere...

Yes, MXL wasn't born as a baby. 

It was more descriptive in the novel but the drama followed it with the flashing light etc. 

 Totoro888:

Thank you for such a detailed recap of the episodes and the enchantments of the drama from the novel 

Welcome! ♡

I'll have to add more to the  drama-novel comparison later on because the drama screenwriters have expanded and added more details in ep.29 and 30.  

 Soocrafty:

question regarding ep 30 -

so if she transferred the Pearl to the 18 year old XXC, then does this mean it was on him this whole time? And if so, then how would her blood be able to create the stairs ? Wouldn‘t it have been his blood since the Pearl was within him?

Nope, MXL will always be the Chaos Pearl. She just inadvertently transferred the extra Chaos power (symbolized by the patterns on her face) to 18yo XXC. That's why the patterns were gone after that transfer was done.

 twinty:

Thank you for your time putting this all together. I came to read it after I finished watching ep 30. 

It was my pleasure! ♡ Need to update more but I've been busy  as a bee. Will have to catch up with y'all in ep.31 later 

I was told that starting with Ep 30, the plot deviates from the novel. I’m curious about what’s changed and if the changes will impact the ending significantly.

 Totoro888:

I was told that starting with Ep 30, the plot deviates from the novel. I’m curious about what’s changed and if the changes will impact the ending significantly.

I did an update of the comparison just now. I copied it here, too. :) 

 ---> EDIT 01/20/2025 

In Ep.25, MXL meets the demonized ZM in his created illusion space but this didn't happen in the novel. There was a quake and demonic energy disturbance just as she and TM were going to make their third bow in the wedding ceremony so it was interrupted. The Alliance went to the site of the Immortal array and ZM appeared. He hugged her from behind and she instantly recognized him as demonized ZM/XXC.

All the scenes of the machinations of NXY and HXW were not in the novel. They expanded HXW's role giving him that backstory as one of the sacrificial children 10,000 years ago that ZM saved. They showed him reaching the Divine Realm in ep.26-27, finding out the fake history, and destroying the Divine platform. This didn't happen in the novel either.

In Ep.28-29, it was shown in detail how and with adequate foreshadowing the attempts that XXC made to travel back in time to save MXL. This was kind of glossed over in the novel and only the da gege part was emphasized and explained. Ling-ling was how MXL was called in the Gao estate because her spirit lock had the number 0-0 (Ling-Ling), which was just taken from an old spirit slave who died and given to her. Later on, Sang Qi gave her the name Mu Xuanling after the Dark Abyss Xuanling tree.

There are so many changes that I can't keep track anymore. Haha! The drama really expanded the story from ep.25 onwards since in the novel, most of the story was told at that point and what remained after the revival of ZM was the final confrontation between MXL and TM.

In the drama, it was told that TM sensed when CP fell to the mortal realm so he sent half of his soul to the mortal realm and the other half manifested a prophecy. In the novel, he had no role in the interactions between CP and ZM 10,000 years ago although he did approve the request of the Divine clan to change ZM's fate. 

He and CP also didn't spend any time together even before that because he was in charge of the heavens and she of the earth. The first time he saw her was when she went up to the Heavenly platform filled with rage and vengeance to kill the gods and confront TM after she learned of what happened to ZM.