AH

For sure. But as long as my favourite parts from the novel are still shown, I'm kind of looking forward to it? ^^

He can't read her mind, so he wouldn't know *exactly* her thoughts and feelings for him at any given moment. But the poisonous bug connection means that he can feel all her pain (including heartache), her emotions, and her heartbeat (including every time it speeds up around him). And he discovers the memories of him that she recorded in her mirror.

There are many occasions where XY says or does things that make it pretty clear how she feels without directly confessing. On at least one occasion she starts to try to put how she feels into words more directly. But XL always cuts her off, redirects her, or pushes her away at these points. He intentionally stops her from developing deeper feelings for him. Erasing her memories of him in the mirror is one example of many.

Do you mean when does XY give upon on becoming the Royal Mother of Jade Mountain? That happens after her second death and resurrection (the one that actually involves blood from XL's tongue). It hasn't been covered in the drama yet. It comes much closer to the end.

That edit is incredible!

She will remember him and will be distraught after his death. She will go to check her mirror and find that XL erased the memories of him that she recorded in it, so she can no longer use the mirror to watch those memories again.

Your comment about the mirror was correct, not the others.

XL will end up with the ending he carefully and diligently orchestrated. An honourable death on the battlefield. Never failing in his loyalty to Gong Gong or betraying his cause. Giving XY a way to defend herself (her archery), a person to rely on (TSJ - and I do mean "give" here, not just "allow"), and a refuge to escape to (the ocean). And knowing that XY cared about him, but not so much that she couldn't have a happy ending with TSJ after his death.

Those of us who love his character would prefer that he got an ending with lasting happiness, but at least we can take comfort in the fact that he got almost everything he wanted. I think ZX's ending is much worse, but he brings it upon himself.

Check chapter 48.

I'm rewatching episode 25 and had a thought. FFB is clearly injured, so XY hands him a small bottle with something in it (very high quality healing medicine that she received from the emperor). XL doesn't know what's in the bottle, but he knows that whether it's medicine or poison, it won't have any affect on him. But she gave it to him, so he eats it immediately, and XY says "You do trust me."

Every time XY gives XL or FFB something to eat or drink (whether it's medicine, an antidote or poison), he always eats it completely and without question. Is there ever a risk of any of it actually irreversibly hurting him? Probably not. But it still reminds me of that moment in QS town where TSJ drank the poison XY gave him without hesitation, even though he almost certainly knew it was poison. He also knew XY would give him the antidote.

It just makes me think that XL and TSJ have the same mentality: "If XY gives me something to eat or drink, I will eat or drink it without hesitation. No questions asked."

In the novel it wasn't specified where the blood came from or how it was delivered in this scene. The blood from his tongue is mentioned in the novel much, much later (albeit in similar circumstances).

Is this showing the letter TSJ receives telling him about FFB and XY spending time together (eating, drinking, playing, etc.)?

She does not regain her spiritual power, but (in addition to her poison skills) she becomes a very proficient archer and gains the ability to breathe under water without any assistance and to swim under water almost as well as XL. So she is stronger and better able to defend herself near the end of the novel.

Agreed. In addition to the hand-beating not being lethal and TSJ being with XY, there were at least two other reasons that might have factored into XL not going to her even though they showed XL feeling XY's pain on screen.

(1) XY rejected XL's offer to try to rescue her when her leg was broken (a more serious injury) in the previous episode.

(2) Reaching the shore of Five Gods Mountain from the ocean and rescuing XY from ZX's men there would have been difficult. XY thought it would be a death sentence. Rescuing XY from inside the Grand Emperor of Haoling's court would be even more impossible. Trying to do so might cause XY more harm than good.

It's also worth noting that showing XL's reaction to the broken leg and hand-beating on screen was created for the drama. Those scenes aren't included in the novel - he just shows up to offer to rescue XY after her leg is broken and doesn't show up when her hands are beaten. He also didn't call TSJ useless.

Just because it wasn't shown on screen doesn't mean that XL didn't feel XY's pain or emotions when the beasts attacked and when her foot was stabbed, or that he didn't have any reaction to XY's pain / emotions in those moments. Maybe the director felt showing his reaction to those moments every time would break the flow of the scene. XL has probably gotten pretty good at hiding his outward reactions to XY's pain too, so it might be difficult to convey his reactions to those attacks on screen. Showing his reaction to the last attack was the most important, because that attack was deadly and prompted XL to drop everything and run to her.

The first time XY dies, XL spends 37 years reviving her with monthly transfusions of his essential blood. That part is all described from XY's POV in chapter 22 (and in chapter 26 XY mentions that this process also involved XL giving one of his lives to save her).

At the beginning of the healing process XY had no ability to feel, hear or see anything. When she starts to be able to feel things, she feels XL embrace her (while healing her), caress her cheek and touch her forehead in greeting, but never describes feeling him kiss her. She describes XL's blood flowing into her as warmth, but never specifies where / how his blood flows into her.

The only time the novel mentions blood from XL's tongue (or delivering that blood to XY via a kiss) is in chapter 48 when XY poisons herself to death and XL saves her a second time. That time XL bit his tongue and fed XY his essential blood only once (instead of monthly for 37 years) via a kiss. XY was "completely fine" after "some time" and the whole process was witnessed by LY and Sir Bi.

So the two revivals are clearly different. The tongue blood / kiss may still feature when XL brings XY back from death the second time.

Regarding the tongue bit, I'm not sure they actually made a change in the drama. Details from the novel are under the spoiler tag below.

The waiting on Jade Mountain happened when XY was a child after she was separated from ZX but before she wandered in the mountains, was captured by the 8-tailed fox, and later became WXL.

Yes, he became FFB before XY was even born about 480 years before XY meets FFB. It's covered in chapter 18.

It's relatively short, but not that short. 15 years is less than half of the time that XL spends reviving XY (37 years). But more than double the total amount of time TSJ and XY spent together in QS town (6 years).

In the novel they said that TSJ did not play the zither for 20 years before XY asked him to play for her. The novel also says he spends half a year "teaching" her the zither. So the time between TSJ's disappearance and XY's assassination is at least 20.5 years. TSJ disappeared for three years and stayed with XY for 6 years before his identity was revealed, and XY made the promise sometime after that. So minus 9 years. So when XY is assassinated it has been something close to 11.5 years since she made the 15 year promise.

For additional context, the novel says that FFB taught XY archery for more than ten years and XY and FFB buying the new bow together happened after FFB had been teaching her archery for four years already.

After the archery teaching, zither teaching, and assassination, XY goes into the clam shell for 37 years (and TSJ remains in a coma), so the 15 year promise has definitely expired by the time she returns and TSJ wakes up.

When TSJ becomes clan leader after XY's resurrection and XY meets FFB again, 40 years had passed since FFB and XY visited the gambling den and made a bet about which of them could give a demon slave death-match fighter hope (the bet that FFB won). So they made that bet a little less than 3 years before XY's assassination.