[Recap/Review] Ashes of Love Episode 2

You know what, I am starting to like this series, each episode seem to strike a pretty good pace. It’s not slow or boring, it seem like whoever this director is knows how to move a plot. A lot of things happen in this episode like new faces, new scenarios, and for Xu Feng, new feelings start to rise up. I proudly present to you the second episode of in the series!

Recap

Xu Feng continued sipping on his very fresh spring water, totally ignoring Jin Mi and her many questions now that she can see that he got the goods 😉 (magic power). In the spirit of petty revenge, Jin Mi dunks her feet into the spring water in which realization dawn on Xu Feng. Horror-stricken, Xu Feng asks her what this particular spring was use for and she nonchalantly said that the various fairies wash their bodies and their clothes in this spring. Xu Feng gets pretty angry, knowing that he was tricked but Jin Mi just innocently looked at him and said that he had complimented the spring on its “freshness” before hand, why is he walking it back now? As a cherry on top in her revenge, she calls him a magpie knowing full well that his true form is a phoenix. Xu Feng just about have enough with the floral realm and decides to fly back to the heaven realm that instant. Still weak from his injuries though, Xu Feng barely gets 10 feet off the ground when he is pulled down into the spring by Jin Mi who insist that for he should take her along…

Meanwhile Great Floral Fairy Peony (who last name is revealed to be Zhang) is with Magnolia and Begonia trying to search for the bird that broke through the water mirror last night. The chiefs decided to split up to cover the whole floral realm. Begonia finds Jin Mi at the spring and asked her if she have seen a bird since last night. Jin Mi plays dumb pretending to NOT know what a bird looks like (“it has wings and flies” said Begonia) while simultaneously stuffing Xu Feng deeper into the water so that he won’t be seen. After the chief leave, Jin Mi pulls Xu Feng up only to find him knock out cold again. Thinking fast to the previous time, Jin Mi decides to give Xu Feng drops of her honey again. When that fails to wake him up, she goes in and do CPR (I guess CPR is a method known throughout the universe) and us viewers are bless with a weird kissing scene.

She decided to cook him some medicine consisting of “six treasures” of the flower realm (onions, garlic, soy sauce, celery, parsley, and pepper). She proceeds to feed him some and that woke him up instantly. He claims that she was trying to poison him and threatens to totally DESTROY HER. She replies that he’s one ungrateful fellow, not only did she MADE this for him, she also use her precious honey on him as well. She then declares that in this whole floral realm, only she can save him from being discover by the other flower fairies and be made into fertilizer. He tries to argue back that he’s all powerful but Jin Mi points out that she save his bird-self twice already. She declares that she isn’t bragging or anything about the times she save him, and goes on to literally brags, retelling times when Xu Feng was helpless and needed her help. She begs him to take her to the heaven realm but Feng threatens her instead saying that he’s a bird who likes to eat fruits. That shut her up, and Xu Feng finally relents telling her that they will be departing 2 days later so she better get ready.

Somewhere deep below earth, the demon realm is holding a ceremony fill with dancing and drinks for their king, Lord Yancheng (Lu Yong) and his two top advisers: Lord Biancheng and Lord Gucheng. Lord Gucheng receives news that the immortal fire lord, the heaven realm best fighter, is missing. He congratulates Lord Yancheng and urge him to prepare an invasion force so that he can rule both realms. Lord Yancheng is in high spirits, he declares that Heaven will finally pay for killing so many of the demon realm soldiers. The scene ends with everyone in high spirits, as Yancheng order 20000 troops to be ready in 10 days so that they can march straight into heaven.

Heaven realm in the meantime is in heavy chaos. Emperor Taiwei assures his wife that he has sent the guards and that he will find their son very soon. Empress Tuyao though uses this moment to press for the succession issue, even though Xu Feng is the second born, he is the first legitimate son. Tuyao then implicates Run Yu (the firstborn but illegitimate) as the guy behind harming his half brother so that he can succeed the throne. Taiwei resigns and calls in Run Yu for questioning although he refuse to declare Xu Feng as his successor.

It’s TRAVELING DAY! Xu Feng impatiently waits outside as Jin Mi packs a heavy bag. Feng sends her back to travel lighter, and she relents bring only her little succulent plant spirit friend along. With a wave of a sleeve, Xu Feng turns Jin Mi small and fit her in his sleeve.

In the floral realm, the fairies are trying to close the hole of their “water mirror” that was cause by Xu Feng a few days back. Just as they finish closing and every fairy commending their Chief Zhang, Xu Feng flies out breaking the barrier a second time. A moment of shock appears on everyone faces and slowly it register to them that it is the bird they were looking for. Begonia promises to bring the perpetrator back so the floral realm so that they can judge him for good. She flies after the bird….

Xu Feng is having a fun time going fast then slow then fast again just to make Jin Mi uncomfortable. After she threatens to throw up inside his sleeve, he finally goes at a stable cruising altitude allowing Jin Mi a peak of the view outside his sleeve. This is her first time literally on the outside of the Floral realm and she is amaze at the view. Begonia finally catches up with them and want to a battle with the bird. She mistakenly thinks that Xu Feng is no one important and is under the guidance of a certain person called Sui He (apparently the leader of the birds). After Xu Feng denies that he is not saying. Begonia would have none of it and the two battle, but Xu Feng easily overpowers with his fire magic.

Back in the floral realm, Lian Qiao and Lao Hu finds out that Jin Mi has gone missing. Chief Zhang suddenly joins them and ask them where Jin Mi was. The two mutters that she is probably off playing hide and seek with herself. Chief Zhang finds a burnt phoenix feather next to Jin Mi bed and scolds Lao Hu for not being careful. Zhang orders the two to find Jin Mi immediately or face dire consequences. The two was just about to go out but they bump into crispy Begonia instead. Begonia tells her sister that the bird was too power and is a good user of fire techniques. Now the bird domain is heavily suspected because their are known for their fire techniques and Zhang thinks they have taken Jin Mi. Zhang decides to fly to the leader Sui He to find out the truth.

Zhang flies to the bird domain only to be stop by some guards at the gate. They battle but Zhang proves her worth as Chief of the flower realm but easily overpowering them. Sui He (Wang Yifei) finally comes out and welcome Chief Zhang. Zhang accuses Sui He of mismanagement, one of her subject has gone and kidnap one of the floral realm spirits (Jin Mi). Sui He decides to prove that the accusation is wrong by ordering her lieutenant to search through every bird in the world and ask them if they kidnap any floral spirit. If they did, they would suffer death. Just then a messenger from heaven notify Sui He that the fire lord has gone missing and that the demon realm is planning an attack. Her presence is needed in heaven. Sui He tries to excuse herself but Zhang says she can go after this issue is resolve. The two fought and it seem for a while that they are on equal grounds, but Sui He finally gains the upper hand and defeat Zhang. Admitting defeat, Zhang bids goodbye to Sui He and flies back to the floral realm. Zhang actually suffers from a minor injury and she is very salty. She declares that the floral realm will no longer provide food for the birds and they can just suffer from malnutrition from now on.

Xu Feng smells something fishy coming from the demon realm, so he decides to take a detour and flies down below.

The demon realm is ready for battle but Yancheng is very displeased at the 10000 men gathered. It is not enough troops as he has hope for and Biancheng (who was not at the banquet) tells him that in such short notice there was no way to gather as many as 20000 men. Biancheng urge his king to rethink his plan to invade heaven (he is a pacifist) but Gucheng uses this oppurtunity to say that Biancheng has been spreading lies demoralizing the troops and must be dealt with. Yancheng is obviously already angry at Biancheng, and hearing Gucheng makes him even more angry and orders his personal guard to chop off Biancheng head for more moral you know. Biancheng is timely save by his daughter Liu Ying (Chen Yuqi) who is the demon realm best warrior. She reminds her king of the time she iso-fought so many heaven troops at once that Yancheng call her basically a one-woman army capable of 8000 men. She asks to be sent to the front lines as the commander to which Yancheng agrees, complimenting Biancheng for having such an awesome daughter while he is a sly and devious individual. As the demon realm prepare to attack after serving wine, Xu Feng flies out from nowhere in his phoenix form and knocks the wine cup out of Yancheng hand. The fire god instill fear in the demon’s army and Yancheng side-eye Gucheng for not having the accurate information. Yancheng proceeds to tell Xu Feng how he just wanted to do a troops review while Xu Feng calls him out on wanting to wage war since his troop review is at the border between the heaven and demon realm. Feng proceeds to procure a fire bow out of thin air and shoot a blazing arrow at the King. Gucheng sidesteps it and pushes Biancheng in his place instead. Luckily Biancheng is save by his daughter who using her whip, manage to deflect the arrow. She then (referring herself in the third person I don’t know why) to challenge Xu Feng to a match. At first Feng says he doesn’t fight women, Liu Ying angrily retorts that there’s no gender difference on the battlefield and proceeds to fight. As the two fights Gucheng tells his King to set a trap so they can capture the fire lord alive. Biancheng urges his king to not, since they already were misinformed might as well not push it. Xu Feng eventually overpowers Liu Ying, taking her whip weapon right out of her hands in a sound victory. Yancheng sees this and begins to flatter Xu Feng, saying that he is big pacifist and would never want to fight any realm. With that Xu Feng departs.

In the heaven realm, Empress Tuyao have procured damming evidence against Run Yu, she found an ice shard in Xu Feng Nirvana fire pot. Taiwei angrily calls his first son in and demanded answers. Run Yu proceeded to say that although he uses water magic, it is not his. He then proceeds to tell his version of events on how he was attack by a mysterious fellow and how the fellow flied to where Xu Feng was. Run Yu reveals that he also got injure and Taiwei press why he never reveal it until now to which Run Yu said that he didn’t want to trouble his father.

Xu Feng finally arrives in heaven and the first person he sees is Sui He. She is very happy to see him and said that his mother has been worried about him ever since he disappears. Sui He then notices something amiss and blast Xu Feng sleeve. Jin Mi finally rolls out and Sui He begins to question her for having evil intentions. When Jin Mi says that Xu Feng was the one who brought her here and that he owes her a favor, Sui He tries to kiss up to her mistake by offering Jin Mi pills that will give her 100-year of cultivation if eaten. Jin Mi is happy. Just then a guard from the night Xu Feng attempts to reach Nirvana safetly approaches him and apologize for not being able to protect him well. Jin Mi overhears the word Nirvana, and finally recognizes that Xu Feng is not a crow but a grand phoenix.

Reactions

You know what, I really enjoy the series so far, it’s moving at a quicker pace than I expected. I was literally expecting the two to still be in the Floral Realm by the end of this episode but the plot is moving along quite nicely. What I don’t like though so far is the fact that Xu Feng seems so overpowered. I mean in Eastern Philosophy, Good and Evil is suppose to be “equal”. Xu Feng literally made the demon realm look subpar after one battle. One battle is enough to scare the King of DARKNESS, who should be way better than Feng. I also did not like how Jin Mi friend Lian Qiao did not know what was going on. I mean Jin Mi CALLED her when the she found the bird, why wouldn’t Jin Mi call her friend when the bird turn big. Also it was not like these events happen in one night, I mean it happen through several days and I just find it kind of doubtful that Lian Qiao didn’t visit her friend ONCE or even notice that she was absent during their “friendship” meetings or something. Overall though good plot so far, we are introduce to a couple character and also develop Run Yu and Xu Feng brotherhood. Something tells me that a central plot line in this story would involve succession issue although Run Yu so far does not look like the ambitious type.

Comments

  • Evora | Apr 13,2020

    A lot of people refer to themselves in the third person they just do it’s like respectful or something.

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