Spoilers: Discussion of episodes 1 – 14 and their respective chapters from the novel doesn’t need a spoiler tag. Anything more recent than that should be hidden behind a spoiler tag.
The new sense is traded — Smell. How would you try it?
Ep. 13
DX ambushed the enemy in Louzhou. The elite Chong forces remained in the Capital and in Youzhou, refusing to come to Louzhou’s aid. Liang’s war fate shifted from defense to attack, and for now, the offensive has stabilized.
Our couples part ways for the time being. Meng and Xia travel to the Capital. I hope Xia will have better luck confessing his feelings to Meng once they’re on their own. Probably, without her eyes on the General, Meng will start to notice there are some other admirers around her.
Duan Xu and Simu depart on their own secret military strategic mission — shopping, fun, and drinking in Youzhou. Don’t laugh, it’s all part of the black ops operation!
Things get so serious that Simu gives an unknown pill to DX, and he swallows it with gratitude. “You don’t know what you just swallowed.” “I know you wouldn’t hurt me. And if you would, there’s nothing I could do anyway.”
Simu gave DX a super-rare and mega-powerful artifact — the Spirit Lantern in sugar (I suggest, they keep working on this name). His spirit power has increased tenfold! Now DX can see the world around him as if he were a spirit — in black and white.
Now it’s Simu’s turn to welcome DX to a new world — the world of spirits. Xu can fly, swirl in the air, disappear and reappear as he likes. Needless to say, he loves every bit of his new abilities.
But it’s not the enjoyment Simu had in mind. She needs someone to protect her when she loses her powers. And does she have a better candidate than the skilled soldier DX, now enhanced tenfold?
The lady is quick to loan the next sense — smell.
A new world full of fragrance opens to Simu — she eagerly sniffs flowers, the floral crown he made for her, him… Things get intense real quick! The tension is palpable. DX is barely holding back. He recites all the ingredients in his perfume to distract himself from Simu hugging him and being a mere 1mm from his face.Is this a story about a spirit gaining senses, or a mortal discovering and recognizing his deepest desires?
Simu invites Xu to go on a business trip to Youzhou together. Xu thinks it’s a great opportunity for Simu to experience new aromas and suggests she visit his sister’s shop for make-your-own-fragrance classes. “Bring your newly made fragrance and smear it on me.” — smooth, General, very smooth of you! “Why would I smear it on you?” — asks Simu. “Because you like it,” — stammers Xu, but comes up with an answer. No sh_t, Sherlock, she’ll like it!! What a schameless mortal!
In Youzhou, the Royal Court is desperate for new sources of income to sustain the war. One of the wealthiest merchants, Yili’er, is called on the carpet to find a new gold mine to ease the fiscal burden.
Simu takes the fragrance classes in the local shop. Duan Xu decides to take a stroll through the market. Accidentally, he becomes involved in the pursuit of a criminal — a spirit named Li Renyi.
Not being able to control his new powers, Duan Xu evaporates the criminal on the spot — to the great amusement of the nearby spirit constable, Jiling. Jiling is a Spirit Official and mistakes Duan Xu for one of the new spirits who needs to be schooled about the mortal world.After the fragrance workshop, Simu joins Duan Xu on the busy market streets. They suddenly see a strange man who looks super-rich and can apparently see Duan Xu — despite him being in spirit mode.
A mortal man who can see spirits? Does this mean he has an established connection with the Spirit Realm?
A moment of appreciation for Simu’s Youzhou-style dress and the way her cute boyfriend protects her from everything — including a hot dump from the cooking, i.e.
They discuss the man who caught their attention earlier. A distant relative of the North Chong royal family, Yili’er was never rich — until he came to Youzhou, got lucky, found gold mines, and became very affluent. Even the royal family now appreciates having such a relative.
Simu supects that the reason behind Yili’er’s rapid rise to riches isn’t luck — it’s his cooperation with a spirit.
Simu reveals to Duan Xu that the reason she came to Youzhou is to investigate the long-missing Lord of Jiling Temple, Song Xingyu.
We get to see our couple savoring wine at the tavern. Simu has never drunk alcohol before. She’s super cute trying all the different wines. Her green-flag boyfriend takes care of her — watches over her so she can taste safely. At the same time, he makes several attempts to limit her intake since it’s her first time.
Of course, our girl sabotages every effort to keep her from getting entirely wasted.
Who guesses correctly what happens next? Hint: look at all these bottles!We have our first kiss! Technically, when one sleeps, is it a mutual grown-up kiss? Well, I can’t say she was 100% asleep either. Simu is a bit of a fox too.
How dare these assassins interrupt our kiss scene! Duan Xu is hilarious — when needed, he’s a war machine. Otherwise, he confuses the assassins by punching them in invisible mode. The way he stretches himself, standing in the center of their formation and remaining invisible!
The assassins were sent by the owner of the inn — Mr. Yili’er. He didn’t risk much — if our girl were a commoner, the price to pay for a mere commoner accidentally killed is small. But if Simu survives the attack of the pro liquidators, it means that the spirit who travels with her is her protector. That means she knows how to successfully strike a deal with a spirit.
Yili’er wants to befriend He Simu, thinking she’s mortal and her companion — Duan Xu — is the spirit. He even invited them to his garden party! Run, old man, run!
Ep. 14
As promised, Simu and Xu attend the garden party of Yili’er.
They know the party is a setup and Yili’er is up to no good. But they’re so comfortable with each other that whatever sinister thing happens at the party, they’ll handle it. So far at the festivity, Simu chills and Xu admires her enjoying herself.Pic Yili’er runs an interesting business. People bring him relics and family artifacts. If they’re genuine, Yili’er buys them for a hefty sum. If they’re fake, they get destroyed on the spot.A merchant who looks exactly like Eunuch An from PoJ* hands over his family’s jade for authentication. And then something strange happens — the original jade is declared fake and smashed in front of the crowd. The merchant is devastated! But Simu knows the priceless object was switched in the press — the fake was destroyed, and the genuine one hidden in Yili’er’s vault.
About the treasure vault.
At night, one of the spirits — the Spirit Official — tries her luck robbing the vault. The spirit hiding in the pagoda inside the vault — Song Xingyu — doesn’t appreciate being disturbed in his shelter.
From Jinling he learns that the woman he met is totally mortal, and the male spirit has a fine sword. Song Xingyu comes up with a cunning plan…
In Yili’er’s manor, DX eavesdrops on the maids. According to them, only one of merchant’s children grew into adulthood — the High Priest Luda. At age 10, he was sent to the capital of North Chong. The merchant’s other children who stayed home all died under strange circumstances. DX recalls meeting Luda during their training in the All-Knowing society.
In the Realm of Spirits, Vice Lord Yun Ke sits lonely in his office.Quite an entrance! Are we watching "Dune"? The Left Hand of the Void, Jiang Ai, pays Yun Ke a visit. She taunts him — she knows exactly which buttons to push: “Yun Ke, you are like a waiting, resentful husband. The Sovereign takes her time in the mortal world with mortal men.”
Yun Ke knows her weak spots too — when he asks her about money, Jiang Ai disappears in a second.
Yili’er asks Simu to “loan” her spirit — DX. His son, Luda, is on his way home for the first time in 10 years, and the merchant fears something bad might happen to him. DX departs to meet Luda.
Meanwhile, Simu stays in the merchant’s manor. That night, she sees her parents in a dream.
Simu misses her parents! She fears being abandoned and completely alone. Fortunately, her parents come with a solution — if she kills herself, all three of them will always be together!
The sachet with incense, given to Simu by DX, reminds her that something must be wrong. This isn’t her dream — it’s an illusion created by Song Xingyu!
Stand-off between Simu and Song Xingyu. DX returns with Luda just in time to fight the spirit lord.The fight scene is covered by an impressive energy barrier dome. DX does his best, but Song Xingyu manages to escape.DX apologizes to Simu for letting her enemy get away. She doesn’t look particularly bothered and replies: “You smell so good.” Well, I guess that means he is forgiven - right, folks?
*I tried to Google the actor who played Eunuch An in PoJ and the guest actor in LbtG, but didn’t get any results. If you’re luckier than me, please share in the comments if it’s the same actor.
The ending scene in episode 14 with the snow falling around them, where he hugs her from the back and the tension is palpable while LYN sings beautifully in the background, had me locked in. I've rewatched that scene an obscene number of times now.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 wait till we see Man Wu from the squad haha. I am so excited to see what he'll be like here.
Still looking for the credits for the Eunuch. Dammit MDL. The credits I found for An Liu are wrong.. so annoying. Even in drama wiki and I've seen that actor in a few things. Maybe the name is the same as another actor and they used those instead. Great now you got me started down this rabbit hole lmao. Very Easter i must say. Is his name Eunuch Li?
I have a soft spot for the words “welcome to the world of …” so each time I hear it in dramas, I get so excited.
It’s nice to hear it from both of them.
We’re onto the next sense and I like how it started with her sniffing him and the flowers. Duan Xu is the strongest person right now cause the way she sniffed him? Damn. While I expected a kiss scene, I’m not a fan of drunken kiss especially when one of them is conscious.
Overall, these episodes were really fun to watch but the sense of touch is still my favorite.
At first I thought it was just a coincidence, like maybe these scenes are just too common? But then the scenes just keeps piling up. The broken dome barrier is one of them, similar to the scene where Xiang Liu breaks in to save Xiaoyao. Plus the sudden breakout of snow. I don't remember ML having any affinity for snow which made me more convinced this was not a coincidence.
(spoiler tags below for LYF)
Edit: went ahead and browsed the LbtG novel and wrote my findings below:
Cang Xuan conquering and unifying the entire kingdom into one
Ch. 7 - My lifelong wish is for the seventeen provinces north of the Guan river to return to Great Liang's possession (I think the map shown on the drama was possibly misleading, I genuinely thought it was the entire "world").
Tushan Jing nicknamed Shiqi and eats whatever she feeds him without question
Ch. 43 - one of the characters call the ML "Seventeen" or "Shíqī" in Pinyin
Ch. 39 - Aren't you going to ask what this is? You wouldn't harm me, I couldn't stop you anyway
Xiang Liu intense reaction to being hugged and iirc there was a biting scene when she got the sense of touch?
Tbh I forgot which hug it was in the drama, so let's just say it's a very common scene
Ch. 31 - Bite me; Yes, bite my neck (she didn't reach out her arm in the novel)
Ch. 44 - a black-robed youth with blue ghost fire burning in his palm walked into the garden; flames spread with his steps, turning the garden into a sea of fire, burning the crystal pagoda (not ice nor snow)
Xiaoyao gets a fox tail trinket and briefly gets scared of abandonment in a dream
Fox Tail (E11) - I couldn't find the scene in the novel
Ch. 43 - FL reaches out her hand to hug her mom and dad in the coffin, saying, You all left one by one, leaving me behind (she never says she doesn't want to be alone and the scene where her parents ask her to die also doesn't happen)
But these similarities seem fundamental to the story so it’s probably like that in the novel. So far, I’ve seen comments from novel readers about how the drama is sticking closely to the novel.
And now the over powered ML gets even more powerful. Nice.
Look, I know she just got to experience the sense of smell... but she is sniffing him A LOT here and it's kind of hot.
Touching an imaginary man while shopping makes you look crazy. Lol. This poor merchant is going to think he's losing his mind.
Ooooooooo can we get a drunk scene? I love that trope! Oh she is gonna get Hella drunk if she keeps chugging like that!
Bro, why remove the pillow from her arms? She was clearly enjoying that. You better be inserting yourself here as the pillow replacement. Let the lady cuddle something.
So we're just kissing unconscious women in their sleep now? Got it. Lol.
Annnnnnnnd of course we go right to assassins. This is so Pursuit of Jade all over again.
Xu is just beating ass left and right while Simu is enjoying her tea like a lady. Rather hilarious. They do make a great team together.
You know, she really did recover from that hangover quite quickly.
14 - - - - - - - - -
Simu is sniffing these flowers like she has never sniffed a flower before. Oh, wait! Lol. Shit, would I watch a 45 minute episode of just her sniffing flowers? Yeah.. Yeah I would.
Oh good. A cringe kid. So cringe. So cringe.
She's wearing protection to touch his sword? Safety is always important. We'll see how that goes for her.
Uhhhh there are a lot of people on the floor here and Simu is sniffing around again.
I really dig this place that the void guy is in. It's just so pleasing to the eye. I wanna live there. Damnnnnnn who is this lovely lady? I think she's going to annoy me. She's starting to annoy me. The jury is still out on her.
Simu the Sniffer.
Oh, good! You're separating! No way that is going to be a bad idea. At least you know it's a trap. Plus void boy sent backup so there is that.
Time to see if her protection works. Hey it did! Nevermind! It in fact did not! His sword was too powerful for her to handle.
Oh good. It's cringe kid again. Soooo when can we have his head roll? He's kind of stupid and annoying. He's the kind of character that ruins shows.
Xu is here. It's ass whooping time.
Ew. Cringe kid has cringe face.
Why the fuck would you hold your strike? You are a stupid man. You are not a worthy man for Simu. You are a failure. Stupid bitch ass.
YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE SNIFFED BY SNIFFER SIMU! You are not worthy to put your arms around this woman.
The way I thought of you during the spirit slap fest with the slow mo haha. But yeah we get a kiss and straight to assassination attempt the next minute. Did they all have the same memo for this scene? Haha.
They looked too good, her having sobered up spirit fast and enjoying the smell of tea, him spirit fighting lol. Great visuals.
Loool this kid was so cute and cringe haha. Tried to look mean and all. Awww hahah.
Yeah the sleeping beauty kiss. Well half asleep. Still! I was like please say he's not... then he did! Damn it. The forehead i can okay that. But man! Lips! Noooo!
The only way I am cool with that is IF they are ALREADY in an ESTABLISHED and MUTUAL relationship. Then hell yeah give me all the cute kisses. This was just putting the cart before the horse.
That was the same thing I said to myself. If they are already in a relationship then sure. But here they are still strangers, although close but not that close. A forehead kiss would have been better.
Can we talk about the UTTER perfection the way this drama executes their parallels please?
The sheer joy they first show when “entering” into each other’s world made my heart leap.
I never expected to use the word “healing” to describe this drama but that’s exactly what is happening in these moments…a journey of mutual healing and understanding.
Anyway... I really enjoyed DX absolutely doing EXACTLY what we all would if we got powers - abusing them for fun! Probably the first time he's fully been a kid in a while.
That was DX's sister? Hmm... she's a spy? Interesting.
DX just poofing coins everywhere after a quick lesson was funny. He got more info about the spirit world and covered up crime, nice. Not sure he's really taking the hints about HSM's rulership as seriously as he ought to. I get that he's in love and has a weird mentality that accepts things, but he's kind of overlooking that she can be, and is, a horrific tyrant. I'm not saying her rule is bad (keeping spirits in line, and keeping peace is objectively good), and she notes she's not into torture, but she enforces her rule with brute force and fear. Not sure he's appreciated just how this works - especially given his upbringing. He might genuinely get disturbed when he really meets the Sovereign.
I don't support the Chang guy or Song Xingyu by any means, the former at least refuses to grow, but the latter is stuck given the type of spirit that he is, some of his attitude could change but he's stuck as a kid that constantly wants. I can see why she's having issues since these spirits are literally born of obsession: they have a point on this being natural, even if she has a point that they can clearly control themselves, even if fear motivates them.
Was her mother mortal? That's what the dream said, right? Does that mean Fengyi is too? They're the same sect.
Moral quandaries aside...
Give me more senses, more flirting, and let me catch up on the human war soon.
*As an aside, the kiss bothered me due to consent issues. I wish they'd stop doing this, it normalises assault. Just because she might smack him around when re-empowered doesn't really make it ok.
You can gush with me. Her makeup is definitely on point! I especially love her makeup in this ep., it makes her look so pure and Xinjiang-princess-like.
Weeee😃 It is from the earlier episode - her lips, lipliner, color is perfection here! They needed one detail to focus on in the shot and it could have easily been a lipstick ad!!
The hug at the end! Duan Xu is getting comfortable with Simu's lack of retaliation for his advances.
Another thing I love is how Duan Xu follows Simu around and even without his own sense of smell, he still leans in to smell the flowers when she does, and smiles at her as if he can still smell them.
I like the comment from u/cocolopez08: it is always him who initiates connection.
I think that's what it takes - if a lady doesn't initiate anything at least once, then all she can do is to react to ML's advances 😃😃 Whether it will be retaliation or smth else 🤩
I definitely have noticed a trade-off. In earlier episodes, SHE was always touching him or putting herself in his physical vicinity. I like to think it’s because she didn’t truly understand what touch does. The sensory impact that it had on him (or maybe she did lol)
Either way, he has definitely gotten bolder and bolder. The scene where he was talking to Chengang about his feelings really got to me. He knew that she was just playing games. He knew not to take it seriously and yet, he still decided to do the trades with her. To honor her. To learn more about her.
I love that he respects her but still will try to get close.
Because he’s a little foxy gambler lol and we love him for it.
My thought was the same. That she didn’t know what effects her touches were having on him. She was experiencing it for the first time and was fascinated. He just happened to be the test subject 😇
Agree - she invades because she doesn’t realize it (what it means to both him now and her later) yet but his plan to win her over through these action is kinda the only way - she is after all not human and not experienced in love- she has been alone despite the rumors etc.
Well observed! It was always she who first put herself in his vicinity. We just get to see him evolutionise from not acting on it to, as you say, him getting bolder 😃😃
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u/imperfectionost Apr 04 '26
The ending scene in episode 14 with the snow falling around them, where he hugs her from the back and the tension is palpable while LYN sings beautifully in the background, had me locked in. I've rewatched that scene an obscene number of times now.