I am not able to qoute the post, so I will do it like this:

@Lan_Lan: "BUT these points you've brought up make a lot of sense too. So maybe they are still in the loop or there is a loop within a loop ?‍??"

Maybe I am just fishing you know, but somehow I can see they paid a lot of the attention to details so it kind of makes me wonder. Is it - is it not?

@Lan_Lan: " I was thinking that this could be the first time CK was able to get the Tianji compass to activate in preserving his memories? Because for a while there he was struggling to get it activated. I assumed in previous times he couldn't get it activated in time before the memory erasing kicked in, which is how the loop started and continued. "

Yeah, I can see this could also be the case, he did struggle for a bit there. I gueass we will just have to wait and see how it is hoing to play out.

@Bored Kitty: " but it could've been that even tho they went back to the past, bcs it's still considered a tribulation, what happened then affected their primordial spirit still, so if they lost their memory from the past and got stuck in it, the loop will repeat itself. so chu kong was indeed able to go to the past but since he lost his memory of it again, he got stuck in the past repeating the loop again and again and again. and from the look of it, xiangyun doesnt seem to realise that it's a loop, only that it's their destiny to fall in meet and fall in love. and we dont really know what happen outside of the loop. it could've been that every time they went to the paxt, chu kong got stuck in it, xiangyun isnt so she eent to look for god haoxuan and got killed by him every time."

I was thinking this too. I think every time he got stuck, and that CK repeated the loop, as in he never died, the same person repeated the loop and lives. 

However, CH did die an was reborn. I do not even think she is in the loop in the same meaning as CK, as she dies every time. I think he is in the loop and that dragges her to because they are connected.

And I also think that in prevous loops happened everything exactly the same. If Tianji compass is the new variable here and this time he succedded in activating it and that broke the loop, we can assume that other times, CK gets stuck in the past with his memories erased, CH dies, comes back from tribulation, storms into HX palace, and since CK doesn't come back to stop her (unlike this time) she dies then and there for revealing she is CH but has no powers.

So I guess this is possiblly a difference this time. He activated it, came back, stopped her and everythubg else is new.

bu i stil do wonder about Demon Clan, Mystery forest and that one Cat Demon from the past - is it just a storry filler or there is more into it.

the time loop is still pretty hard to understand and there's this weibo user who tried to explain it and it made sense to me. i google translate it ofc bcs i cant understand chinese 

https://m.weibo.cn/status/4939769252679603

but basically the loop happened within the compass, think of it like a game, they use the game mechanics to go back to the past and simulate it (to learn about the memory chu kong lost 30 000 yrs ago).  and that it doesnt happen in real time, so they exist beyond normal time flow for the entire duration they were in the disc, so no matter how many times the loop happened in the disc, time hasnt changed in real time

but there's something i'm confused about if we go by this theory, what happened to cang hai/xiangyun after chu kong got stuck repeating the loop within the tianji(?) disc, and why didnt she have memories of them repeating the loop? bcs she was with chu kong entering the compass simulation, and she didnt get her memory erased, so by this logic, if she's pulled into the loop bcs of their connection, then she would retain her memory of them experiencing it already. maybe any of you can understand it better than me

@Bored Kitty - OMG I am even more confused now ??

That just makes it so convoluted, my brain feels overheated trying to process how that works ?  BTW I noticed today's eps brought up the 7 demon cores. I'm guessing it might have something to do with their 7 incarnations. They also answered the cat issue @Bee_Bee brought up as well. They just simply had a bad history with past cat demons. It doesn't seem like there's more to read into that.

Similar to what you both have said, I'm still leaning towards this 5th life as the loop breaker. How I see it is, originally the order of the lives would be 5th life as the "1st" life... CH meets CK, then all the events that follow leading to her death and CK falling in the 30K years sleep (he did not have the compass at this point). Then we have the "2nd" life in the heavenly realm when he comes back and meets her as her reborn cloud self, XY. (We're ignoring the boar and tiger life as now it seems like a throwaway just for added comedy.) Then next is the Lu Changkong and XY as the "3rd" life, Shifu and disciples as "4th" life, and then general and princess as "5th", which led to them getting the clue from Immortal Li and starting the use of the Tianji compass (this is the jump off point of when the loop opened). Since CK never successfully activated the memory eraser blocker from this point on, the loop closed and he falls into a coma and CH gets reborn as XY again. And this becomes an infinite loop until he was successful with the compass to keep his memories, which broke the loop and they were able to make it back to the present, and we move on to the "6th" life in the Mystery Forest. If you look at the count down posters in my original post, in addition to just being countdown to premier numbers, they correlate to the order of when each lifetime happens if we follow this theory.

I think when they have moments of memory flashes, it's not that they remember, but it's because they've relived these events so many times that it's like a sense of deja vu.

Also, LCK, Shifu, general and princess were lived as mortal tribulations... they hop right back onto "2nd" life's path after those finished, but the cat demon king is a direct continuation of "2nd" life's trajectory, which means things have changed.

@Lan_Lan yes your explanation definitely makes sense.

I guess we will have to wait and see if it plays out that way. We still have to find out how will CK get powers of Demon King. He OBVIOUSLY cannot kill his inner Ai for XY. ?

Anyway, I wonder how are they going to play it out. We have 4 eps left and so far we know only that most probably CK will sacrifice himself for XY/CH.

It makes me more anxious that we will get some sort of last minute happyish ending Like in LBFAD, than an openly BE. Like, I will not be satisfied if they reunite in last 30sec of last ep ?. After all this rollercoaster we deserve more.

Oh god the ending of LBFAD gave me whiplash and that "left hanging" feeling in my chest, I didn't like it. I was questioning if he really did come back or was it her wishful thinking. They should've done a TMOPB where Yehua also had a "I'm back" moment, but they had some extra minutes to sit and talk so you're sure he's back.

CK mentioned losing memory of them and forgetting all about her, which makes me kind of nervous about a rushed ending, but hoping they'll be able to solve that satisfactorily since the 7th life was marked as 2 episodes' worth. We got the teaser of him meeting her, teary eyed, with his umbrella and that better not be the closing scene ?

@Lan_Lan: "We got the teaser of him meeting her, teary eyed, with his umbrella and that better not be the closing scene."

You just described what I fear the most. After all this, they reunite as mere mortals in the last 30sec of the last episode, with no eternity forever for them, but "growing old" and DYING. Like they died so many times I get serously mad thinking that there will not be HEA as immortals with no one ever having to die again. ?

You both just voiced my concerns out aloud! 

 i really hope they have a satisfactory ending, where like both Lan_Lan and Bee_Bee said, they have enough time, unlike lbfad. i actually saw a spoiler that chu kong indeed has his soul yeeted while trying to save xiangyun/canghai in the heavenly realm. this is a wishful thinking but i really hope they did the last tribulation the same as in the book where she went to look for him in the mortal realm and have him cultivate into an immortal, ultimately giving him the choice of choosing who he want to be, but there's only like 2 episodes for the finale, including all the messy things happening in the heavenly realm :(( so this is jsut wishful thinking on my part

LOL. This time loop theory has my brain fried too. I've probably done more research and sleuthing about this than any homework/research papers in the past. 

I pray they make it, make sense for the ending. The 2 of them deserve it after this loop mess. 

 rambler26:

LOL. This time loop theory has my brain fried too. I've probably done more research and sleuthing about this than any homework/research papers in the past. 

I pray they make it, make sense for the ending. The 2 of them deserve it after this loop mess. 

bahahahhahaha same i wish i had this kind of passion and interest in my studies

@Bored Kitty - Yes, that! I really hope at least they do that gathering of fragments of soul, and his cultivation. But I liked him as a Golden Qilin, he has that healer and GOW powers. I do not think he should be anything else or less. 

CH and Golden Qilin to the end. Power couple. ?

 Bee_Bee:

@Bored Kitty - Yes, that! I really hope at least they do that gathering of fragments of soul, and his cultivation. But I liked him as a Golden Qilin, he has that healer and GOW powers. I do not think he should be anything else or less. 

CH and Golden Qilin to the end. Power couple. ?

I just hope that in the end they show him as all powerful & restored to his former glorious self , instead of reducing him down to a nobody who just reunited with empress Cang hai. 

@IdealLifeDreamRealm: "I just hope that in the end they show him as all powerful & restored to his former glorious self , instead of reducing him down to a nobody who just reunited with empress Cang hai. "

This, exactly. They did this in LBFAD. And I do not like it. They should stay equal and powerfull together.

i just remember that in the trailers and mv, there were two scenes of them wearing the bridal costumes, so fingers crossed, they dont dump it all in one minute